You may be right; but that's such a general perspective that there's a good chance it's wrong in some situations. I think it's a little tricky to overgeneraliz

You may be right; but that's such a general perspective that there's a good chance it's wrong in some situations. I think it's a little tricky to overgeneralize like that - although rent-seeking is pretty much by definition harmful; but whether something merely has a high investment cost and a long payback time, or is rentseeking depends on the details. The details for copyright suggest it's rent-seeking, not necessary investment at the current length and with the current exclusivity rules; but not every incentive to produce need result in rent-seeking. The danger with generalizing is that you've made the problem harder to solve, and have more risk of unintended consequences if you do manage to solve the general problem.