It's a concept create by the 1% for the 1%.

If every printer in the realm requires a licence from Your Majesty, copyright royalties are a great way to reward your most obsequious flatterers - and at the book-buyer's expense! Every author who doesn't flatter you is simply deplatformed. It was a great system (for those at the top), until some...

Great book on the topic if you are interested: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3770306-against-intellectual-monopoly

A Copyright is just a government-granted monopoly. And Adam Smith lays out in his Wealth of Nations why government-granted monopolies are bad for everyone (except for the monopolist).