This commentary of yours was well-answered by AnthonyMouse. I just have to add a point of emphasis, and a chastisement: The notion that Thomas Jefferson was a

This commentary of yours was well-answered by AnthonyMouse. I just have to add a point of emphasis, and a chastisement: The notion that Thomas Jefferson was a proponent of copyright and patent law is just flat-out wrong. He was profoundly suspicious of the notion that government enforced monopolies on ideas and their expressions could have any but the most dangerous, counter productive effects, and has written eloquently of the benefits of the natural tendency of knowledge to spread freely regardless of attempts to restrict it. What he did was not support copyrights and patents -- it was to resign himself to the fact that others developing policy while he was serving overseas as an ambassador made the decision to include copyright and patent law in that policy. As for the chastisement . . . one did not (and does not) have to be a monarchist to completely wrong about copyright policy. Pretending the argument is that one must be a monarchist, just because someone pointed out its monarchical roots, is to mischaracterize the argument so you can deride it without actually addressing its substance.