Without copyright, we wouldn't have such a plethora of inventions and works of art.
And with it we also don't have a plethora of other inventions and art, blocked by patent trolls and the machinations of wringing the most out of copyright periods by artificially stalling new developments until the old monopoly runs out.
It kinda works for protecting creative output so it's not useless, but it's far from perfect and far from the only option.
Nobody would create if they couldn't guarantee they had sole rights to that creation.
Proof: Before we had copyrights, innovation was close to zero, almost anything that was invented was done in isolation and heavily guarded, leading to little improvement.
I'll take a copyright system with some abusers over an environment where anything can be stolen anytime so there's no incentive to create any day.
And with it we also don't have a plethora of other inventions and art, blocked by patent trolls and the machinations of wringing the most out of copyright periods by artificially stalling new developments until the old monopoly runs out.
It kinda works for protecting creative output so it's not useless, but it's far from perfect and far from the only option.
Nobody would create if they couldn't guarantee they had sole rights to that creation.
Proof: Before we had copyrights, innovation was close to zero, almost anything that was invented was done in isolation and heavily guarded, leading to little improvement.
I'll take a copyright system with some abusers over an environment where anything can be stolen anytime so there's no incentive to create any day.