If you invent something, it should be yours to sell. If you have the right to sell it, you will want to keep on inventing.
Inventors reap profits, society reaps the benefit of innovation.
Not all societies have seen it that way. The UN Conference on Trade and Development recommended in 1975 that pharmaceuticals be priced below market value in developing countries, so their consumers would not carry the costs of developing new drugs. Lawyers in the Dominican Republic today, facing complaints about pirated satellite television signals, allege that the satellite signals violate their airspace. In ex-Soviet bloc countries such as the Czech Republic, Romania and Russia, over 80 percent of software is pirated. This reduces revenues that would be used for investment, innovation and job creation.