@ericgoldman So here is a brain twister for you. Let's say I start recording a video on a phone and then pass the phone around to several friends (while the original video is still recording) and we all take turns pointing the camera at whatever and then finally they pass the phone back to me. Who owns the copyright for that video?

It sounds like the court said that whoever is holding the phone owns the copyright. But copyright laws were imposed on us back on the days when the making of anything took a lot of mechanical effort. Think of the effort and preparation it took to photograph former president Abraham Lincoln in the 1860's, and compare that to the effort it would take to snap a picture of anyone today. When copyright law was created photographs didn't even exist, and when they did exist they were a rare and valuable thing. Now it is so easy a small child can do it, or even a monkey. Somehow I think the legal system needs to start recognizing the difference between then and now.

But then again, I have always thought all so-called "intellectual property" laws are an evil legal fiction that should never have been a thing in the first place.