Destroying all copies of a work (aside from the masters) benefits the owner, because now people have to pay the owner for more copies. This is why the publisher

Destroying all copies of a work (aside from the masters) benefits the owner, because now people have to pay the owner for more copies. This is why the publishers at the top of the creative class hierarchy regularly cycle things in and out of print. Note that this may screw over individual authors, but the copyright system was not built to benefit them. Otherwise we wouldn't allow copyright assignment, we'd have "inalienable" copyright instead.