Sure, I'll quote the original source linked to above from economist David Levine (who makes the case against copyright): "we find that France, where copyright

Sure, I'll quote the original source linked to above from economist David Levine (who makes the case against copyright): "we find that France, where copyright is introduced, the number of composers per million increased substantially more than in other countries." I'm cherry picking this quote, but then again, this entire book cherry-picks examples that work in their favor. I'm not arguing that patent or copyright law are correct. I think the patent system in particular needs a lot of reform. And copyrights are way too long. What I am arguing is that copyright (specifically, I'm not getting into patents) helps creators profit off of their work, and that profit motive induces people to create content in the first place, at least some of the time. I'll add that from a moral perspective, I think that if you write a book, Amazon shouldn't be able to copy your book and start selling it for free without reimbursing you. Economist Grew Mankiw notes that he spoke with the authors of the book linked to above and asked (I assume jokingly) if they would mind if he made copies of the book and sold them for a profit and the authors didn't feel that that would be fair within the current system.