I don't really see the point of conflating copyright issues with current economic and political issues unless you simply just don't have any other good arguments. I think most people would agree with you that it's because of big companies' influence that we still use energy hogging cars instead of cleaner, more efficient trams, but how does that all relate to copyright? Very little.

Though you didn't really bring it up, I will grant you that many copyright laws are what they are now mostly because a big company like Disney wants to keep Mickey Mouse from falling into the public domain, but jeez, admit that it helps the little guy, too. It is not all one big conspiracy theory with the corporations waiting to jump on every little guy's endeavor.

There's a movie coming out soon about some guy who invented the windshield wipers. True story. The big car companies stole his idea, and he had to fight to get his due. Patents, trademarks, and copyrights are available to everyone. It's just that big companies are savvier at using them than most individuals are. That's why it pays to have a healthy respect and knowledge of them.

So, instead of railing at big companies for using the laws to their advantage and encouraging everyone not to honor those same laws simply because they protect those companies, why not educate people on using the laws to their advantage as well?

Take your Joe working at Marvel, for instance. When he signs on to work for them, he SIGNS a contract saying that his artwork is work-for-hire, thus the rights belong to THEM. After all, he is creating artwork that uses characters created by someone else. Stan Lee, for instance. How do you think Stan and Marvel would feel if Joe created spreads with their characters and started selling them on his own for his own benefit? Dude. If Joe is all gung-ho about owning his own work and profiting only himself, maybe he should create his own characters, come up with his own comic book series, get it published on his own, and make his living THAT way. There is no one stopping him from doing that, after all, but he chooses to work at Marvel because they already have a following, a consumer base -- they pay for the Marvel name and not some knock off.

But if working for The Man really bothers Joe all that much, the copyright laws protect him just as much as they protect Marvel. He can always refuse to sign that work-for-hire contract and set out on his own and create Joe Comics. And so long as his characters are his own, original, and not something created work-for-hire for some other company, it's his and his alone. He can sign on other artists to do work-for-hire art for HIM, and he can benefit off THEM if he so wishes.

See? Outside The Matrix was just another matrix. You don't have to break all the laws of the universe to get around it. You just have to find ways to use what's there to your advantage.