I don't expect to convert anyone here, but I will correct your facts:

There are excellent reasons why intellectual property rights exist and have existed in one form or another in so many places and for so long;

The very first thing that resembled a copyright was the Statute of Anne in 1710. Many countries today still have none. "Excellent reasons" is of course just an unsupported value judgment.

probably the most important is that, without them, artists and inventors lose an extremely important incentive to carry on their work.

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.

Of course, if one were a luddite, for example, one might want to oppose intellectual property protections, because getting rid of them would almost certainly have a very chilling effect on the development of technology.

I personally am an Extropian, which is roughly the exact opposite of a Luddite (I should point out that the majority of Extropians still support your view of things--though I'm working on that:). I want technology and creativity to grow and flourish--and profit--and I sincerely believe that copyrights and patents get in the way of that goal. I have not been brainwashed by a culture shaped by intrenched status-quo interests who use these scare stories to justify present law; I have examined the history and the facts for myself, and drawn my own conclusions.

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