Copyright stemmed from the invention of printing--although as is often the case, the law trailed the technology. In the prior world where books had to be copied by hand and performances couldn't be fixed in a medium, there was no real need for copyright. What would prevent that prior world from existing today is that technology has advanced to a level that many things can be replicated with essentially zero cost or effort.
I agree with your point with respect to open source code however. Open source software licensing, especially permissive licenses, is largely divorced from attribution--especially in the context of those actually using the software.
In simpler terms, copyright was created as a legal hack to prevent a tragedy of the commons that would result in a total devaluation of intellectual labor.
There may be a more elegant and fair solution, but no solution and pretending the problem does not exist is not it.
> When was copyright invented? Why? What were things like before then? What would prevent that from still working today?
We've had copyright almost as long as we've had technology to easily reproduce artistic works.
>For music at least, I seem to recall hearing that most bands already get the bulk of their money from live shows?
Because they sold their copyright on their music to record companies in exchange for funding their studio recording and promotion.
When was copyright invented? Why? What were things like before then? What would prevent that from still working today?
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Independent OSS ecosystems would cease to exist as no-one would dare release open source code... it would just be appropriated without even giving credit to the original author, let alone any form of compensation.
Which is why SQLite doesn't exist. [ http://sqlite.org/copyright.html ]
This also assumes there's no distinction made between copying and attribution.
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That being said: abolishing it without replacing it would simply abolish writing, music, art, journalism, etc. as primary disciplines or careers. Without copyright the only way to make money in these fields would be to turn all of your work into advertisement
For music at least, I seem to recall hearing that most bands already get the bulk of their money from live shows?