well, if you really want to get specific, it’s because large corporations with a vested interest in maintaining and consolidating IP rights for as long as possible while neglecting small artists and individuals were the ones in charge of writing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and then the US strong-armed most of the rest of the world into adopting most or all of it via compliance by means of a great many treaties, trade deals, etc. in the wake of 9/11 and the expanding militarization during the “War on Terror” at the time. it was pretty underhanded.
Or, in other words: capitalism screwed the little people, and we’re still paying the price.
Copyright, in theory, is great. It’s the current state of intellectual property law, especially in the United States, that’s the problem. 
As per usual not the technology but the implementation as it always is, time in and time out
well, if you really want to get specific, it’s because large corporations with a vested interest in maintaining and consolidating IP rights for as long as possible while neglecting small artists and individuals were the ones in charge of writing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and then the US strong-armed most of the rest of the world into adopting most or all of it via compliance by means of a great many treaties, trade deals, etc. in the wake of 9/11 and the expanding militarization during the “War on Terror” at the time. it was pretty underhanded.
Or, in other words: capitalism screwed the little people, and we’re still paying the price.
You mean to tell me that the rich and famous still influence the laws of the land 🤔