> But the idea that words or thoughts or images can be owned (and that the might if the state can be brought to bear to enforce it) would seem utterly ludicrous to someone from an earlier era.

Is there any research into how people from earlier eras thought about it? And should all laws that seemed ludicrous to someone from an earlier era be discarded? If not, how exactly do we determine the relevance of what someone from an earlier era would think about our laws?