Ok, so let me innovate. I'm going to dump a bunch of my money into researching and developing a new product. Great, that $100M paid off, now we have something we can produce and market.
Oh, what's that? Someone who didn't put $100M of their own money into R&D just came along and stole our design. Now I'm $100M in the hole, and need to sell my product for more money than my rip-off competitor, because I actually need to make my R&D investment back. Of course, consumers don't care about whether I invested money in R&D or not, they just want the cheapest thing. So they buy the rip-off, and then I go out of business.
I've learned my lesson: Never innovate when someone can come along and just take exactly what you innovated. It's far better to be a parasite, and rip off a true innovator and send them into bankruptcy while you reap the profits.
Where exactly does the innovation race happen?
If I could just steal books and publish them as my own, do you expect there to be an "innovation race" in authorship? Or, will authors-who-earn-money just stop writing because they can't make a living off of it?
Oh, what's that? Someone who didn't put $100M of their own money into R&D just came along and stole our design. Now I'm $100M in the hole, and need to sell my product for more money than my rip-off competitor, because I actually need to make my R&D investment back. Of course, consumers don't care about whether I invested money in R&D or not, they just want the cheapest thing. So they buy the rip-off, and then I go out of business.
I've learned my lesson: Never innovate when someone can come along and just take exactly what you innovated. It's far better to be a parasite, and rip off a true innovator and send them into bankruptcy while you reap the profits.
Where exactly does the innovation race happen?
If I could just steal books and publish them as my own, do you expect there to be an "innovation race" in authorship? Or, will authors-who-earn-money just stop writing because they can't make a living off of it?