Companies claiming to represent the "creative industries" have turned into unlikely advocates of censorship, surveillance and control. Entertainment industry associations have asked world leaders to remake the Internet as a nightmarish panopticon, in the name of defending the arts and copyright.

But for all the censorship, easy takedown, digital locks, and warrantless surveillance and seizure, copyright infringement goes on, and artists find themselves increasingly serving as the justification for totalitarian policies that could have been ripped from the Chinese politburo's playbook. Can we design a copy-native, Internet-friendly copyright system? If so, what would it look like? Which artists would it serve? Which artists should it serve?

Cory Doctorow  is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger -- the co-editor of Boing Boing and the author of Tor Teens/HarperCollins UK novels like FOR THE WIN and the bestselling LITTLE BROTHER. He is the former European director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in London.