Is it wrong to share copyrighted songs and video over the internet? I think the law should be changed to take away the protection of copyright. What do you think?

I'm going to comment on the question of whether copyright laws arein fact justified, rather than the question Bernard Gert addresses,namely, of whether it is morally wrong in general to violate laws(though in passing I can't stop myself observing that, when it comes tointernet activities, it's not always obvious which country's lawsshould apply). One possible view of copyright (and ofintellectual property generally) is that the creators of such propertyhave an absolute right of ownership, and that the job of the law issimply to protect this right. But an alternative view is thatintellectual property is a socio-legal construction (however it is withother forms of property) and that the job of the law is (a) to allowthe public to maximally benefit from the creation, while at the sametime (b) ensuring that there are sufficient incentives to encourage thecreation in the first place. Nearly all systems of modern law arebased on the second view, as is shown by the fact that they place a timelimit on...