What intellectual damage does it cause? If I build a house, do I have ownership of it? Or should I allow someone to walk in, change the locks, repaint one of t

What intellectual damage does it cause? If I build a house, do I have ownership of it? Or should I allow someone to walk in, change the locks, repaint one of the rooms, and rent it out for their own profit without paying for it? Artists create new things. That's the job. There's a certainly a case to be made against parasitic rent-seeking which sweats existing resources for profit. But you're not going to have your "renaissance of art, science and culture" if the people working on it full-time aren't getting paid. Mostly these arguments come down to "I want something for free so why I should pay for it?" and "I don't understand what these people do, it seems pretty replaceable and trivial, so it can't be worth anything." It's classic management-think. It's exactly why so many jobs, including many elements of software development, are hugely undervalued, and why so many people have to work in harsh and aggressively inhumane environments.