> Without any kind of protection, anyone who has a greater means of production/marketing than you will always steal your ideas and profit more from them than you can.

Since you're an artist shouldn't you only care about copyright and trademarks? What's a patent going to do for you? If someone steals your designs then you can sue them through means other than patents. If they copied your idea but executed differently then well I guess that sucks to a degree but if it's an obvious evolution then more than likely it happened independent of you anyway.

I would imagine artists would have the least issue with just abolishing patents entirely so I'm curious why you do.

I know Harry Connick Jr. holds at least one patent to do with performing his music.

Imogen Heap has also been working with some guys to develop their Mimu Gloves. Which probably have some proprietry software & engineering.

So there are at least a couple of people wanting to protect ideas.

As an artist, you should be so lucky that people want to copy your art. It is the best way to ensure your relevance.

Think of a band like U2 - probably the most copied "art" in the world. From memory, their last tour grossed over 1 Billion.