"I think that, when pressed, many people who sympathize with Doctorow in this debate would assert that a thing that has no physical manifestation conveys no rig

"I think that, when pressed, many people who sympathize with Doctorow in this debate would assert that a thing that has no physical manifestation conveys no rights to its creator. But I wish they would come out and say that directly" That is exactly what many IP opponents state. For example - Against Intellectual Property, by Stephan Kinsella: http://www.mises.org/journals/jls/15_2/15_2_1.pdf http://www.mises.org/journals/jls/15_2/15_2_1.pdf