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A central point noted is that property rights do not refer to relations between men and things but, rather, to the sanctioned behavioral relations among men that arise from the existence of things and pertain to their use.

Property designates those things commonly recognized as the entities in respect of which a person or group has exclusive rights. Important types of property include real property (land), personal property (other physical possessions), and intellectual property (rights over artistic creations, inventions, etc.). A right of ownership is associated with property that establishes the good as being "one's own thing" in relation to other individuals or groups, assuring the owner the right to dispense with the property in a manner he or she sees fit, whether to use or not use, exclude others from using, or to transfer ownership. Some philosophers assert that property rights arise from social convention. Others find origins for them in morality or natural law.

Knowledge is defined (Oxford English Dictionary) variously as (i) facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject, (ii) what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information or (iii) awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation.

A more fitting example is that of the Stationers Company holding a publishing monopoly for much of 2 centuries.
The U.S. was founded at a time where freedom from such long-lived monopolies was important.

Unfortunately, Copyright monopolies have been extended from 13 years to 90-120 years.

http://www.culturaleconomics.atfreeweb.com/cpu.htm

Inventions not actually available in the marketplace would not be protected.

Robert K. Merton listed five causes of unanticipated consequences:
(I have applied them to Sony's decision to use rootkits)

1. Ignorance (It is impossible for Sony to anticipate everything.)

2. Error (Incomplete analysis of the rootkit problem, or following habits that worked in the past but may not apply to the current situation.)

3. Immediate interest in stopping a computer from copying something, may override long-term interests of sustaining their reputation as honest and trustworthy.

4. Basic values of trusting your customers may require or prohibit certain actions like installing a rootkit, even if the long-term result might be unfavorable. (These long-term consequences may eventually cause changes in those same basic values.)

5. Installing malware on people's computers is always a self-defeating prophesy (Fear of some consequence drives people to find solutions before the problem occurs, thus the non-occurrence of the problem is unanticipated.)

Bzzzt. Sorry, wrong. When copyright started it was ALL ABOUT the rich and powerful maintaining their monopoly over a resource. Writers could give a rip about "protection" - they didn't make a living writing, anyway. They just wanted their ideas to be read.

You can find a brief history of copyright at musicjournal

For a thorough history on copyright, check out Cultural Economics

You can keep your "crying" car ... give me one of them "big boys don't cry" muscle cars of the early 70's. I remember my first car was a second-hand 1972 Grand Torino. The 300 some-odd mile trip to and from college was both a pleasure and a snap.

And nothing gave me more warm fuzzies than to step on the gas pedal and know that I had all the pickup I needed to get in and out of traffic.

And happy ? Happieness is being able to open the hood, with nothing more than a wrench and a timing light to FIX and TUNE THE DARN thing myself. Especially because mine was equipped with that beautiful boss 351 Cleveland Engine under a hood large enough to house a 400 CID 2V V8 ! Talk about elbow room !

That and the back seat was large enough to house and/or make a small family !