When you put it in these terms, it seems almost impossible to justify copying music. You expect a company to put in the time and money necessary to develop a g

When you put it in these terms, it seems almost impossible to justify copying music. You expect a company to put in the time and money necessary to develop a good bicycle so they can sell one and then have it copied forever? How can a system like this possibly survive? People in the developed world have lost almost all sense of the true cost of what they consume. We buy gasoline without paying or knowing the cost of undoing the environmental damage. We buy plastic cups and bowls and plates and forks and knives and spoons and bottles and packages without even thinking about the cost to recycle them or hold them in landfills until they decompose (if they even do). We buy clothes without considering the wage of the person that made them. We buy meat without concern for the suffering of the animals or the environmental degradation from the production of livestock. Or the impact to the soil from monoculture farming. Or the impact to our health from the monoculture farming. We buy technological gadgets without even knowing what chemicals they contain, where they come from, and what their global supply looks like. Then we think nothing of throwing those gadgets in the garbage five years later. We rely on minimum wage workers every day to stock our stores and clean our offices (and many other things) without caring about the struggles of low-income families. And yes, we copy music without considering the financing required to produce art. No, no one loses their bike with a bike copying machine. But quite a few people lose their jobs. And everyone loses the benefit of their innovation.