The article was about copyright which protects original works of authorship, not patents which protect inventions. Every investor asks how defensible is your c

The article was about copyright which protects original works of authorship, not patents which protect inventions. Every investor asks how defensible is your company. For certain products: drugs, microprocessors, and countless other capital intensive products patents protection is one of the important mechanisms for defending marketshare. For example, it takes tens of millions of dollars to design a new drug and get it through trails. If competitors could just copy it as soon as it was released, the company that did the original work could not recoup its R&D costs and would eventually go broke. Without patent protection, no one would invest in companies that designed new drugs and innovation would stagnate. Copyright provides a defense mechanism for creative companies like Disney. Again, it takes tens (to hundreds) of millions of dollars to develop a movie. If anyone could just copy it and sell it, Disney would could not recoup its production costs. No one would buy Disney stock. Creative expression would stagnate. Are there problems with the current patent and copyright laws? Yes. But the fundamental protections they were intended to provide are still necessary for innovation and creation to flourish in a market economy.