After a day's reflection I think maybe my shareholder idea won't work after all. Copyright is not just meant to append the creator's name to a piece of artwork. Mostly it's a device that correlates monetary value of art to its level of public interest. It is used to create scarcity to that it can be sold in a capitalist marketplace. When you buy copyrighted art you are really buying a licence to view, hear, or read it. It's a very abstract idea which is why I tend to reject it. But the I think premise, to pay the artists, is sound.
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Next I don't think that people or companies should be allowed to have sole ownership of a copyright unless they wrote, recorded, filmed, or photographed it themselves. If I am under contract when I write a song and it sells then the buyers should be given a share in that copyright (like a share in a company's stock). My record company can start out by buying half of my song. Then if they decide to sell copies each copy would come with a share in the copyright that is equal to every other share, except for my share which would always be half. As copyright shareholders the customers would be allowed to do whatever they want with my song. With each sale the song will become less and less profitable (thougt hopefully it will still have value) until the point that it virtually becomes public domain. I may sell copies too but I will still own half the copyright.
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This system system does promote the free exchange of information but it would not appeal to artists who want or need to earn money from their art. What good is half a copyright to someone who want's to make money from it? If you wrote a song wouldn't you want to take full credit for it? Perhaps my above suggestions force people to be altruistic, which is impossible by the definition of altruism.
If copyright law lets corporations take credit for works they didn't create then it doesn't serve its purose. When it is used to prosecute consumers (the very people the law was meant to serve) then the spirit of the law is violated. As such copyright law must be changed to give the rights to the creators and artists, and it must promote the distribution of art and information. That is the balancing game that must be played and is being played right now.