when China decided to wholesale ignore Western copyright in the digital age, completely.. the equation changed IMHO.

Yes, but dealing with that politically would be made easier by having the moral high ground.

Not really, because it depends on the basis of morality. In fact, this 'morality' problem is shown in the existence of libraries in the US.

Is a book a collective good? Or property? In the US the answer is 'both' in an awkward way. But the US does know that having books behind a paywall is not in society's best interest.

And in reality 99% of the books will never be read, which makes their 'value' as property suspect.

If so few books are to be read, then why is it so difficult to pay for those which are?

> This is not a political stance, but one of basic questions of authorship and what compensation authors should receive and what control they should have over their work.

Questions of compensation and ownership are one of the most political questions of all.

What exactly do you think communist revolutions were revolting over?

How to employ and feed and compensate the masses.