> Most intellectual property takes the form of time invested rather than a monetary investment ... Certainly that's true in the case of some Web-based business

> Most intellectual property takes the form of time invested rather than a monetary investment ... Certainly that's true in the case of some Web-based businesses. It is assuredly not the case in medicine, energy, pharmaceuticals, etc. And even if it were true in general, the people who are investing their time -- sometimes for months and even years -- have to put food on the table, pay the light bills, buy shoes for the kids, etc. Forcing everyone with an idea into the starving-artist mode is a good way to discourage people from pursuing their ideas. ------------------ > Copyright infringement in any particular case could only be shown to have an economic effect if you can actually prove that a sale would have been made and as far as I know that is not possible without visiting alternative universes. You can make a statement to that effect by observing aggregates but you'll never be sure of it. Society makes a lot of decisions by observing aggregates. We require kids to go to school through age 16, even though we'll never be sure that any given kid wouldn't do better by dropping out and going to work at age 14.