> Not sure why very nice people on the internet are apologizing for laws that prohibit ripping off other people's work. These laws are very important. I would

> Not sure why very nice people on the internet are apologizing for laws that prohibit ripping off other people's work. These laws are very important. I would argue that they are not. In fact, I don't think life without intellectual property laws would be at all that different. Ideally, IP would reward creators and inventors, but in practice, it protects the rents of publishers, Big Pharma and Big Tech instead of fostering innovation. The fact that people, for instance, write free software, and that such software is often superior to commercial, copyrighted software clearly shows that such a model is viable. There would also clearly still be people making music, movies, etc. Another issue is that enforcement of IP laws is very uneven. In many parts of the world, people already freely share copyrighted materials and freely copy drugs. Effectively, all of this is subsidized by American consumers who don't sail the high seas for their software and movies, and spend thousands a month for their prescriptions.