For my company, patents are almost purely used to suppress competition and stifle innovation by companies without enough dosh to defend their innovations. Anything we actually care about is a trade secret. I think copyright is much more defensible, insofar as it's *hard* to create a worthwhile artistic work, but incredibly easy to duplicate it. But I agree there is zero public good in nigh-indefinite copyright periods, and significant public harm. But with that said, most of what I consider the greatest works of humanity were created before copyright existed. If we got rid of copyright, people would still be creating stuff.
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I think copyright is much more defensible, insofar as it's *hard* to create a worthwhile artistic work, but incredibly easy to duplicate it. But I agree there is zero public good in nigh-indefinite copyright periods, and significant public harm.
But with that said, most of what I consider the greatest works of humanity were created before copyright existed. If we got rid of copyright, people would still be creating stuff.