[Nutmog]

Physical property rights aren't natural either. We depend on the government to prevent theft. Without that, anybody strong enough could just break into our house and take what they wanted.

What may be natural, is the human feeling of ownership. But that isn't always aligned with the legal definition. For example poor people feeling that their gentrifying neighborhood is being taken away from them, even when they didn't "own" any land in it. Plagiarism too - we don't like to see others take credit for our work or ideas (which aren't copyright).

For-pay copyright sounds like a good idea. I wonder though if it would prevent many lucky great work getting off the ground. You'd have to predict in advance that it might be successful before paying the fee. Poor creators of work would lose their right to copyright because they didn't want to take that gamble on everything they produced.

[slavik81]

> For-pay copyright sounds like a good idea. I wonder though if it would prevent many lucky great work getting off the ground.

Grant a decade for free. After ten years, you probably know if it's successful or not. Then you could choose to register for more (or not) with a good understanding of its value.