So here is my problem and why I take the stance that I do with IP. I am a college professor (boo, hiss) and I create two types of intellectual property: academic research and course materials.
Much like performance artists, I receive little, if any, remuneration for my academic research. However, it is important to me that my publisher receives income from publishing my work because they provide the infrastructure for my work in terms of editors, peer reviewers, and distribution channels. If they didn't receive income from it, that infrastructure would disappear.
The course materials hit me pretty hard. Two years ago, I spent the summer developing materials for a course. I'm not compensated for summer work, but knew that I could use those materials for several years to teach a class that I would be paid for. According to my university, I own the rights to any course materials that I produce. This year, the department needed an additional section of the course that I designed these materials for to be taught. A member of our faculty who is retiring in a few years was offered the course first and took it. As a member of my promotion committee, he also had access to the course materials that I had developed. Without those materials, it wouldn't be worth his time to develop the course to teach it once. I know that he is using my materials because he came to me yesterday and had questions about how to implement a program that I had included in the materials.
I would have liked to teach the course and would have received an additional $6,000 for it. So, in this case, I lost out on $6,000 because someone violated my IP rights.
The issue isn't that there is a scarcity in supply. I fully acknowledge that the marginal cost of producing a copy of an IP work is virtually zero; the issue is that there is a scarcity in demand. Only so many people have the knowledge and interest read my academic work. Only so many students can sign up and take my classes. If the IP that I create is given away for free, then I won't be compensated for creating it and then I won't be able to continue to create it.