Part of the vilification of copying has to do with some existing injustices baked into modern capitalism. We're told that if you're a little guy, you can beat

Part of the vilification of copying has to do with some existing injustices baked into modern capitalism. We're told that if you're a little guy, you can beat the Goliaths through innovation and outmaneuvering. But if BigCo can just copy SmallCo's innovations, that becomes untrue. Do patents help here? Yes, but it's quite expensive, in practice, to amass and defend them. In many cases, smaller players don't have the resources to patent every innovation, even if those innovations are objectively patentable. So I think, in general, although people recognize that copying of unpatented innovations is legal, there's a feeling that a BigCo, which already has many advantages because of its size, should be competing based on its own innovations, not by copying from smaller players.