Conversely I work on the principle that anything I put on the web is open to abuse
So yes I'd agree that using others work without permission is wrong
1. Exactly. Anything you put on any type of media which can be copied, scanned, or made into a paper airplane and sailed across the classroom
(I'd never do that) is open to abuse. It always has been and always will be. Every type of draconian enforcement going on out there from the RIAA on down almost always
only succeeds in making matters worse. In the RIAA's case it does it by poor public perception and the resulting anger.. and it's cost them. Enough to discontinue their practices, send their lawyers back into the woodwork they crawled out of, and wish they never did it. You can't control it, but you can control your initial release. Make sure you charge a fair value for this and don't waste time, or worse create poor public perception, by getting angry over it. More than anything, don't lose sleep over it, and don't let it hurt your business by adopting policies or creating attitudes which will turn off your customer base.
2. I'm not arguing its
'wrong', but I don't think we stop and think about why we think it's wrong as often as we should. Many would say you can't own art whatever form in which it may be. I personally think we've been conditioned
(for various reasons) to think it's wrong and haven't stopped often enough to consider if it still should be wrong.. and this prevents us from implementing changes which
'might' benefit us at the right time. With this subject, we usually learn after shooting ourselves in the foot.
(see RIAA example above) I think copyright is most often misunderstood, almost as much as
'Ad hominem'.. You can't bully people into agreeing with you by getting angry at alternative viewpoints or misapplying/abusing definitions. I also think the people making real money in this industry
(media) are the ones thinking out of the box about copyright and finding ways to redefine the concept/industry. Think about micro-stock agencies, Itunes, Kindle, and many more. These are all evolutions..