Copyright infringement is not theft from the people being copied, but theft from the cheaper alternatives finding no traction. If my choice of entertainment is

Copyright infringement is not theft from the people being copied, but theft from the cheaper alternatives finding no traction. If my choice of entertainment is "the best in the world, for free" or "some aspiring entertainer, for five bucks" then the choice is easy: best in the world! free! If my choice of entertainment is "the best in the world, for $20" or "some aspiring entertainer, for $5," then some people will choose to pay for the best experience, and some people will choose to get the aspiring entertainer for cheap. Copyright infringement in the form of piracy really serves to cement the position of the already top-of-the-chart, and make it a lot harder for any alternatives to make a living. Compare word processors: Apart from the libre-software fringe, why are there no wide-spread word processors beside Word? If Word is coke, why is there no Pepsi, or Snapple for word processing? (The "move to the cloud" and "software as a service" movement is beside this point -- that's a change in "what it is" at a more fundamental level)