The question becomes whether our legal framework will be providing a disservice when a bargaining chip in the hands of already poorly funded contributors to society's knowledge base is surrendered in order for music fans to download copied mp3s. My prediction is that we will be more inclined to upload a cyber-penny for a poem or skin, but less willing for an article about the election or a rule from the bluebook. We see evidence of this today. Public broadcasting is constantly under-funded. The bulk of popular television programming is based in fantasy.
Society has an inherent interest in entertainment.
Perhaps the problem with factual information is its inevitable expiration. Few people watch the same documentary twice. New generations of CPUs are sometimes redesigns of the same core materials - in other words, software on a chip. For example, a process patent may describe a dramatically new method of data mining with practical applications in many industries with data warehouses. The inventor develops a software program that executes the data mining process.