Patents and copyrights are, as discussed in much earlier incarnations, a form of barter (bribery?) by the state to ensure a steady supply of novel ideas. I give you something, you give me something.

We (or at least, policy makers) agreed that this was the cost of high quality media/inventions. And it was sure as hell a lot better than the old guild systems where everyone in a given trade colluded to maintain trade secrets, under threat of ostracism or worse.

A lot of the weirdness people attach to either concept looks ridiculous if you can get past all of the emotionally loaded crap and keep telling yourself they are a quid pro quo arrangement, and not to be conflated with property rights.