This is indeed the common justification for them. But clearly the entire Renaisance is a counterexample: art, invention, culture, and creativity flourished as never before in human history--witout benefit of copyrights or patents.
Hmm. My understanding is that the experimentors of the Renaisance period had financial backing from inheritance or sponsors amongst the gentry who were amused by their activities, and often kept the artistic work in private collections, shown off to show the wealth of the patron yes but not 'released'... there are many barriers to vast inheritances now (mainly 'cos they're highly unfair and keep a lot of ppl poor) and those who are rich tend to have 'worked their way up' therefore have a different attitude to those who are just rich from birth (they tend to either a) want more and more to 'prove themselves' or b) want to donate to charitable causes to help underprivaleged people get their basic needs catered for, which is an admirable cause but doesn't leave the money free to support science and art). Today's culture wouldn't support 'tinkerers' who just spent all day playing with things that were of no commercial or industrial value, because people have more of a social conscience and direct such free resources to the truly impoverished, expecting those with talent to provide towards practical things.
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