>On the contrary, the fact you don't see how they both are at play suggests the opposite
Doing a quick skim of the linked article, the basis of argument seems to be:
"copyright laws protecting Purdue from true and damaging information about the dangers of the medication from leaking and spreading"
Which, so far as I can tell has nothing backing it. Do you mind elaborating what specific aspect of copyright law hindered the public from learning about the "dangers of the medication"?
>Follow this $1M bet for the truth: https://blog.rootclaim.com/rootclaim-accepts-500000-challeng...
I don't get it. The source you linked is arguing for the opposite (ie. "we conclude that despite several shortcomings, mRNA vaccines have saved many more lives than they cost"). Regardless, neither the the source you linked nor Kirsch's substack contains any evidence, so it's impossible to evaluate either side's claims.
>None. Very few of the most critical medicines are modern inventions. [...]
Ah, so your claim is that if something's gone off patent, then it's in the public domain. I don't object to that characterization, but I have the following follow up questions:
1. going back to your claim of "Public domain has given us 99% of life saving medicines", is it also accurate to say "public domain has given us 99% of life destroying toxins (eg. oxycontin or leaded gas)" since those products have gone off patent and are therefore in the public domain as well?
2. perhaps my original question wasn't clear, but the standard argument for patents is that if it weren't for patents, then the life saving medication wouldn't exist in the first place, or would exist but would be delayed for decades/centuries. Declaring that "Public domain has given us 99% of life saving medicines" after they've been developed under a legal regime with patent protection ignores this.
>But they were (c)opyrightable. I have an original 1920 first edition copy of Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity and he put it in the public domain.
Again, this is a misunderstanding of how copyrights/patents work. The exact manuscript that Einstein wrote might be copyrightable, but the abstract concepts (eg. e=mc^2) were not. Even if Einstein didn't put it into the public domain, he wouldn't be able to hold a monopoly on the theory of relativity, only his specific manuscript discussing it. Likewise, I can write a book about the Theory of Relativity right now and it would get copyright protection, but that doesn't mean I can charge people for using e=mc^2. It just means people can't copy the contents of my book.