This quote is stuck up on the wall here at EFF. It makes me think every time I read it. Figured it should be online somewhere.
Copyright law strikes a precarious balance.
To encourage authors to create and disseminate original expression, it accords them a bundle of proprietary rights in their works.
But to promote public education and creative exchange, it invites audiences and subsequent authors to use existing works in every conceivable manner that falls outside the province of the copyright owner's exclusive rights.
Copyright law's perennial dilemma is to determine where exclusive rights should end and unrestrained public access should begin.
Neil Netanel, Copyright and a Democratic Civil Society, 106 Yale L.J. 283, 285 (1996).