I am
intimately familiar with the copyright system. It DOES do good.
A couple lifetimes ago (about 7 years), I was living in a place where there was no work—as in, ZERO work. I didn't have enough money to leave, and I was so far in the middle of nowhere that walking somewhere to find work wasn't an option, either. I was in the process of selling off personal property to pay rent that month, when I remembered that I wrote a novel 5 years earlier, and decided to try selling that, too.
Long story short, using the computers at the library, I found a tiny publishing house (who you've probably never heard of) who would work with me over the internet. They picked up my book, we signed a contract where almost all of my compensation was in a percentage of profit and not up front, they made some minor edits, and started selling them. Well, it did better than either of us really expected, and suddenly I was rich! I could pay my rent, I could eat two whole meals a day, and I didn't even have to ration how long the lights were on!
And then, maybe 2 weeks later, there was 'a dispute'. """Someone""", whose name I'm
legally not allowed to disclose, had copied my book, changed a few names here and there, and took it to a bigger publisher (who you probably HAVE heard of). Apparently they didn't do their due diligence too diligently, because they started selling it. My publisher had to sue them, and unfortunately had to direct all their time and attention towards the lawsuit, and couldn't print or distribute anything.
Suddenly, I was dirt poor again. For about 4 weeks I basically just sat around listlessly, cried my eyes out, sat around listlessly some more, and contemplated suicide. Definitely my lowest point. My publisher fought as hard as they could before it became apparent that it would be fruitless, and settled out of court. It was obvious enough that we were in the right, but they had dozens of legal staff members, and my publisher had 5 employees. Part of the settlement was a payment to my publisher, who split it with me fairly; the other part of the settlement was that they had to stop publishing my book, and basically pretend that I never wrote it. I think they went bankrupt a year or so afterwards.
The amount I got paid was okay as far as things go. I was no longer approaching homelessness. But there's no doubt in my mind that I would've made more if it hadn't happened. With the experience of publishing a much shittier novel, a couple middling ones, and another instant "hit," I know now that that first one was an absolute banger. It still stings, having had to give away my baby like that, so believe me when I say that despite that bad outcome, copyright law is VERY. IMPORTANT. If it weren't for that, I would've made NO more money, because they wouldn't NEED to settle, because it wouldn't be illegal, and I probably would've starved to death within 3 months. If it weren't for copyrights, small authors would never make any money on anything before some huge corpo snatched it away.
The system as it stands now is kind of dogshit, and the length of time for a copyright to expire is obviously excessive, and most DMCA stuff is clownishly stupid, and it is still WORLDS AWAY better than having nothing. Getting rid of it would NOT be good for everyone, it'd basically ONLY be good for corporations. I KNOW, because I LIVED it.