A thought on copying

Danny Ferrington says in the book "Ferrington Guitars":

"I met J.J. Cale back in Nashville, and he's the guy who really set me on track building guitars that where different from everybody else's.
I remember I once built this real nice copy of a Gibson mandolin, and when I showed it to John, he took one look at it and said, "It's good all right, but why make a copy? It's only gonna be as good as a Gibson, and there's an awful lot of them around already."