US releases of anime are often inferior and chopped up, a complete spit in the face to the creators of the title as well as the fans who want to see the work as originally created and in the highest possible quality.

That said, I still believe we should recognize these things as rights…

See: http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html

“Article 27.

(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.”

What we need to realize as a society is that as communications technology and the ability of humans to communicate changes, so must the laws in order to protect the rights suggested above. The industry associations and self-called “creator” lobby groups from the old pre-Internet economy (the Industrial broadcast/publisher era) are simply not wanting to advance with society, so do not misinterpret what they are doing as recognizing the balance between 27(1) and 27(2), but as people who oppose both.

Suggesting that 27(2) means that the first-author should have absolute control over any future use of their work is in complete opposition to a rational meaning. “Creativity builds on the past, and the past always tries to control the creativity that builds upon it” — protecting the rights of creators *MEANS* limiting the control that the past has on future creativity.

May I ask what kind of twisted mind comes up with this utter drek?

Intellectual property as a concept is an EROSION of personal property rights! It takes what used to be someone’s personal property and PREVENTS them from truly owning it by placing government mandated controls upon it.

Rather than being classified as “personal property rights”, let’s call copyright what it is: a “government entitled” wealth distribution program.
Like welfare’s evil twin, copyright takes property from the hands of the poor and places it into the hands of the wealthy (yes yes i know there are exceptions, but the VAST majority of IP is ‘owned’ by huge conglomerates)

These politicians, in their rush to save those poor filthy rich fat cats, have lost sight of why there were huge limitations in copyright in the first place: copyrights overlap personal property rights of individuals.
If you claim copyright is an inalienable right, then individual property rights MUST suffer in order to hold to that claim, and that is unacceptable by modern standards of capitalism and human dignity.