Five (naïve) assumptions we make about creative individuals:
- Creative individuals would not produce their works without the possibility of making money from them.
- Creative individuals are endowed with the inalienable right to control who may copy or modify those works, since without that “copyright” they would not be able to make money from their creative output.
- Copyright is a straightforward extension of physical property rights and therefore a creative work is a form of intellectual property.
- To protect the rights of creative individuals, governments may legitimately prevent others from copying or modifying creative works.
- It is only government-enforced copyright that keeps a creative work safe from the ravages of violation and abuse; when it is no longer so protected, it lapses into a fearsome state of desuetude and disregard called the public domain.