While I don't agree with the use of AMS for many reasons, I have to disagree with your statement. Just because a patent office exists, that does not correlate to copying not being part of a free market economy. If you read up on capitalism and free market theories, you'll see that there is nothing stopping a business entity from copying another's intellectual property and building it cheaper. That is part of the 'free' in free market. The market can decide if they want to use the service/product no matter how it was produced.
Just because the US government feels the need to protect intellectual property rights does not mean that protection is part of a free market theory. That is just an implementation of a instance of a free market-like economy. And that free market-like is slowly fading away as we regulate more and more in this country.
