Copyright is historically and pragmatically connected to several power struggles in society. The ones that come to mind are surveillance, free speech, personal

Copyright is historically and pragmatically connected to several power struggles in society. The ones that come to mind are surveillance, free speech, personal control and freedoms (e.g. DRM), sharing and spread of information. (For example, you can see the article about U. California vs Elsevier currently on the front page, or I can expand on why I say copyright has been connected to the above issues.) I completely agree with one angle on your post, which is that people's personal ethics and desires are only pawns or incidental to the economic players in this game, but that's my explanation for why people follow the game closely and cheer for one side or the other.