Another charming Skypeland adventure was meeting a young teacher from Canada who claimed that intellectual property was bad, and that to have a truly "free" market, one needed to get rid of laws forbidding copying of ideas. When I pointed out that it wouldn't be fair to authors to photocopy their work and sell it, he reluctantly agreed that sounded reasonable.
I pointed out that without some way to pay innovators, no one would invest the time and energy to innovate. Workers and investors want a return on their investment, and if you deny them that, they will not support innovation. He fought and fought and fought on this issue. He could not give a single example of where removing intellectual property rights had to lead to more innovation.
There are isolated examples, of course, like in Wikipedia and other free software. However, as a rule, people want to be paid for their efforts. If they are not, they will not expend them. He was quite offended when I suggested he be willing to teach students for free.
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However, as a rule, people want to be paid for their efforts. If they are not, they will not expend them.
a "rule" which, given your apparent definition of "paid", excludes a large and expanding movement you refer to as "isolated examples".
before publishing, do you read what you've written?
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