Nobody making art needs to own their ideas beyond "I created this." You lose the point as soon as you say, "They NEED to benefit from it." The act of creation in itself is its own reward, and the most it's guaranteed.
So at what point do people start owning the things that are theirs? If art isn't yours, are ideas? What about plans, schematics, etc? Does the guy who invents, say, a new kind of solar panel own the plans of that solar panel, or is it now in the public domain, where anyone can use it free of charge? What about actual, physical things? What's the substantial difference between an mp3 (a series of impulses recorded on a magnetic plate) and an actual CD (a series of tiny holes on a foil sheet)? Where should the line be drawn?
So, what's your opinion then, downloading opponents, on buying and selling second hand CDs? Surely that's infinitely worse than file-sharing: not only is someone getting their greasy hands on the music without the band seeing a penny, but some interloping racketeer is making a profit out of it instead! How could we allow such things in the 21st century? Surely, once you get tired of a CD, you should be required to drop it in a woodchipper?
This goes in the same line as the library thing: if you sell the CD, you no longer have it. One CD (and therefore, one copy of the music) has been purchased and paid for, and, presuming you don't rip it and then sell the CD, one copy of the music exists.
Ever used a VCR? Depending on where you live, taping live television is either fair use, fair use under certain circumstances, or technically illegal but nobody cares. Did you ever watch a film in school? That's illegal, read the warning at the front of a video or DVD some day.
Actually, I've never recorded anything on my VCR, and if I watched a video in school, it's my teacher's fault, not mine. But I do get your point, which is that "If everyone does it, it must be fine." The fair use clause is a tricky thing, and usually relates to how much of a work you're quoting/using. But in the case of filesharing, the thing in question, you are distributing the entire package, which does not fall under fair use. The copyright holder reserves the right to reproduce the media in question, which means you don't have it, and you never did. You never bought that right. You COULD buy it, if you have the money to give the record company, or you could get permission (if the artist is really nice), but when you bought the CD, you bought it with the understanding that you would NOT copy it and give it away.
People make a big deal out of filesharing because it's widespread, easy and (mostly) free. Not as many people photocopy or scan books because it's time consuming and boring, but ripping a song and then sharing it is a simple as clicking a button. But if it was as easy to do that with, say, cars, pills or nuclear weapons, people would make a big deal over that. There's always trouble in the electronics industry because of patent infringements; it's the same thing. If the laws weren't there to keep people's ideas theirs, people would have totake it into their own hands, and that couldn't end well at all.
Because it limits creativity and actually limits and reduces any art I (or anyone else) might create. You make that statement sound like a bad thing, whereas to me it's nothing but positive. So a small number of people might see slightly decreased revenue from their intellectual property. That's a small price to pay for there to be more art in the world.
And that is why (originally) copyright expired after 50 years (which is a while, but not so unreasonably long). But the marvelous Disney Corporation stepped in and got it extended to 95 years, which is a bit too long, in my opinion. Patents last for a much shorter time (about 20 years).
Now, I do think copyright lasts too long, but it I still feel it should exist, because people should have the right to security in the things they create. IF they WANT their art to be used by others, they can relinquish their rights; you can always voluntarily relinquish rights, but the moment they get taken away, it's an injustice.
I do realize I'm probably not going to change any minds, but I think it's important to have a devil's advocate and shake up the groupthink a little...