Is it protecting "small artists", though?

Suing for copyright infringement, requires money, both for lawyers and proceedings.

Small artists don't have that money. Large artists do, small ones don't, so more often than not they end up watching as their copyright is being abused without being able to do anything about it.

To get any money, small artists generally sign off their rights, either directly to clients or studios (work for hire), or to publishers... who do have the money to enforce the copyright, but pay peanuts to the artist... when they even pay anything. A typical publishing contract has an advance payment, a marketing provision... then any copyright payments go first to pay off the "investment" by the publisher, and only then they give a certain (rather small) percentage to the artist. Small artists rarely reach the payment threshold.

Best case scenario, small artists get defended by default by some "artists, editors, and publishers" association... which is like putting wolves in charge of sheep. The associations routinely charge for copyrighted material usage... then don't know whom to pay out, because not every small artist is a member, so they just pocket it, often using it to subsidize publishers.

Copyright laws, as of right now, primarily benefit publisher dynasties (like Disney), then large publishers, then large studios and large artists, a few lucky small artists... and leave most small artists SOL.