Have you heard the one about the blonde who goes to meet the rocket scientist?

I’m no friend of copyright, but get a grip--drawing freely on the entire creative output of humanity is not the same as copying. Innovation involves extrapolation, juxtaposition, distortion, and so on. There’s no law against drawing “loosely” on the entire creative output of humanity.
Everyone has a choice, no? You can, for the most part, ignore copyrighted material. I don’t mean ignore copyright—I mean don’t patronize the bazillionaires. Make your own music. Dance your dance. Create art from the inside. Buy out. Sure, you’ll be influenced by previous work, but go beyond. Isn’t this what the sixties were about? Isn’t this what the Internet is about? Individuality. You don’t even need to renounce your tribal nature, because you become part of a new and more creative tribe. Global Non-standard Tribe. The big job is giving people permission to value original work. We’re brandwashed. What would happen if they opened Disney World Canada and nobody showed up?

Salon had a nice article on the same decision: http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/01/17/copyright/index.html