Open source software depends on copyright to work.
Ignoring IP laws is a great way to catch up to stronger economies that are growing on innovation. Once you catch up, though, the only way to keep growing is to develop your own innovations... at which point you start caring more about IP laws. The U.S. went through this transition and China will too, pretty soon I think.
Your comment seems to ignore my assertion that there was more innovation in 3D printing after the patents expired, with much of that innovation being open source. That was not an example of catching up with someone else by copying them, it was an example of novel development done in the public interest.
That's like saying "antibiotics don't work without bacteria".
In my opinion, open source is so successful because the current copyright laws have overreached. My feeling is saner copyright duration would probably make open source all but disappear.
Ignoring IP laws is a great way to catch up to stronger economies that are growing on innovation. Once you catch up, though, the only way to keep growing is to develop your own innovations... at which point you start caring more about IP laws. The U.S. went through this transition and China will too, pretty soon I think.