Here is a thought provoking article on how the distribution of income gives the top one percent such a disproportionate share of output link here. It finds the source in French anarchist Proudhon's cry that "Property is theft," and asserts "The biggest "theft" by the [richest] 1 percent has been of the primary source of wealth - knowledge - for its own benefit."

It goes on to make the point that knowledge is the possession of all and not to be kept locked up. The article doesn't say how much copyright and patents have to do with this, but it should have.

Proudhon also called for the abolition of property, saying that if the right of ownership is a natural right, it is an anti-social right. Proudhon also said that the only real property a worker could own were the rights to his tools, his method of production, and the output of his labor. By extension, that would mean that the songs on GNR's computer, being the output of a worker's labor, Proudhon would define as property.

Good man, that Proudhon.

Well, at least the local maximalist contingent is now being honest enough to almost explicitly acknowledge copyright as being a form of socialism...

Beeswax:

What does Proudhon saying that the labor of workers is property have to do with Socialism? I thought Proudhon was an anarchist. In a way, Proudhon was the first Libertarian.

Proudhon would have said that the original copy of the music on GNR's computer was GNR's property and GNR, as the worker that created this labor output, had the sole right to that property. Once the music was sold, Proudhon would have also said that GNR has no further rights to the copy GNR sold. Thus, a third party could make a copy of the sold music, if the buyer would permit such copying. Proudhon would not have been a fan of copyright because that is a state mandated right and Proudhon was no fan of the state. Copyright most frequently seems to have been initiated by capitalist societies.