We get so much for free from the Internet these days that it’s almost as if we live two lives: the mundane life of working to earn a living and paying for the things we need, and a separate, magical life we lead in a land where everything is free. We almost take offense when someone suggests that stuff we get for free now is actually worth, you know… money.
Hogwash. Things aren't intrinsically worth anything of monetary value. They are only worth what people are willing to pay for.
The reality is that nothing is free— at a minimum the people who create these things are spending their precious life energy.
The world does not care about whether or not you spend your precious life energy creating it.
Most of us are raised with a strong ethic that we should get what we pay for, and conversely that we should pay for what we get.
Attaching morality to profit, loss, and moneymaking lead to moral confusion. When somebody makes ridiculous profit from providing valuable goods and services, it become an "obscene profit" to somebody. When somebody ration fuel in time of crisis through high price, he is seen as a gouger.
On the other side of the equation, thousands of creative people turn away from their potential because they know there’s no good way to be noticed sufficiently to break through to earning a decent living doing what they do.
The threat is not that people don't copy you, but rather that people don't know who you and your work are.
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