"This is true even of many physical goods."
No, this is not true with physical goods. I know of no physical good
that has same properties as ideas. A comparison to a car is not
appropriate. A car is a scarce resource.
"Even if the cost of making a copy is trivial, someone still needs
to make the original first and that may not be trivial."
Now this is a valid argument. It is the same as the one I said people
always make - that without some sort of law, giving you monopoly
over your product, you will not be able to create it. Call it motivation,
enabler or whatever.
I think that your example invalidates such a claim though. You did do
complex, very complex code (as you yourself pointed out) without a
monopoly on your work, which you eliminated by using a GPL license.
If your argument is not about motivation at all, but about morality, that it
is immoral to use someone else's labour without paying them, then this is
a separate question altogether and it has little connection to copyright, actually.
It can be discussed in general terms.
---
Just to give you fellas a framework within which I work out copyright questions, do
watch this video by Stephan Kinsella. The talk lasts for about 25 minutes, the
rest is Q&A. If you listen carefully through all of it, you will see where I am standing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZgLJkj6m0A
--
Louigi Verona
http://www.louigiverona.ru/