Well, copyright wasn't introduced for no reason... As you say, I think it's the fair and just thing to do and people justly get upset when others steal the res

Well, copyright wasn't introduced for no reason... As you say, I think it's the fair and just thing to do and people justly get upset when others steal the results of their hard work. (Even if you're not removing a physical object, violating copyright is still stealing and should be treated as such.) To answer your quality objection: unfortunately, I can't agree with your observation. While some well-to-do people from some cultures may indeed be willing to spend more money for an "original", that is not the case for many, many other people I know. Either because they don't [think they] have the money for the original, or because the original is hard[er] to get, or because they simply don't care about quality as long as it's "good enough". In many countries and cultures, the whole concept of copyright and even property is not as clearly defined in the minds of the people as it is in most parts of the West. Why else do you think fake Adidas/Nike/Puma shoes flood the market the way they do? And in fact, I once saw a Chinese-made lock that was the copy of a copy of a copy of an originally British brand. If everybody would prefer the original, how did that ever reach the market?