Intellectual Property and the Hacker Mentality

If you're like me, the first time you ever heard the phrase "intellectual property" was when David Letterman left NBC to start "The Late Show with David Letterman" on CBS. However, the battles over who owned what rights to created works were in the news before that. I was actually more informed prior to that, as I'm a student of the history of comic books.
Indeed, the history of comics is rife with examples of injustice due to the "work for hire" system. And the occasional victory of the creator (though possibly at the expense of other artists collaborating) through shrewd foresight. Nor were the injustices limited to the early years of the industry. Some of the legal wars were over the nature of the material being published, and what constituted "fair use" of copyrighted material.
Not that comic books were alone in such troubles. Work for hire property issues affected recording artists such as Prince and George Michael . It seemed that whole era was devoted to recording artists struggling against their record labels for more control. But that was before Napster entered the scene..
Media conglomerates such as Paramount, Disney, and Lucasfilm have all defended their rights to control their intellectual properties (though, to be fair, the copyright system demands any infraction be challenged in court, in order to preserve rights. Even a situation that would be dismissed as inconsequential use would revert the property to public domain ).

However, another perspective on property rights has been entering the fray, and we return to the world of recording music...
Just why Jamaica would become the focus of all the changes in the recording industry, and how principles it first practiced would extend globally, is a mystery. The roots of punk rock, hip hop and dance music are in the evolution from ska to dub to dance hall, as was the increased importance of the DJ as artist. The "do it yourself" , often illegal, obtaining of equipment to record and perform with, that too is often traced to Jamaican influences. Music sampling, which formed the basis of hip hop, originally started outside the jurisdiction of US courts.
Steven Levy, in his book Hackers, showed that the culture of computing has some roots in what is known as "open source" dating back to the Homebrew Computer Club of the 1970s & The Well during the 80s. Both Levy and Bruce Sterling (in his book, The Hacker Crackdown: Law & Disorder on the Electronic Frontier ) describe the hacker mentality as being one who is often chaotic neutral: the hacker is often not concerned about morality, but is offended by restriction. The motto "information should be free" arose from this culture.
The rise of recording 'bootlegs' of public performances, as well as making 'mixtapes' for personal use, exceeded and overlapped instances of piracy of recordings, thus confusing such issues as the rights of the consumer over property purchased. Disclaimers stating that any unauthorized use of a recording (of any media) will be prosecutable by law appear on commercial sales, and broadcasts. Non profit P2P file sharing has been lumped into the definition of piracy by the legal system. Meanwhile, some artists, sympathizing with fans, defected from the recording label's position.
The controversy and debate over intellectual rights has morphed to the point that a political party has formed to support the freedom to share & exchange media.
So, we have the stand off: the creators and corporations that view copyright fees as bread and butter, and the hackers who see them as toll fees for roads long since effectively paid for...