On the flip side, if no one copied anything, we would never advanced in technology or art. We wouldn't have cars, but a carriage;there'd be no modern art or realism, but primitive drawings, if we weren't taking notes from each other and copying.
Now don't let me start on games ! :)There was a a big debate on how strict the law should be when it comes to protecting game mechanics and such - imagine if a health bar was protected from copying! How far game industry would evolve if a studio could copyright one useful thing they came up with but weren't able to implement hundreds of copyrighted mechanics?

The reason why we all progressed so much in a last century is because of the tv and internet - people have access to new ideas that they can learn from and improve upon. Copying is part of the progress.