"We" don't do this, copyright holders do. Computers are a disruptive, and destructive force for old business. People talk about "finding new business models" to sound PC but the honest truth is there are no new business models for easily replicable content. It's probably just not going to be a job to be a writer any more. Or a journalist. Or a studio musician. Those are going to be hobbies. That's not a value judgment, it's just the way things are.
wrong, people are willing to pay for a good information filter. that filter can take the form of a writer they consider to produce consistent high quality pieces on areas they are interested in.
More than simply filtering as well, I'm willing to pay for e-books by writers I like, so they'll carry on being able to write - and write more things that I'll like. Think of it as distributed patronage. There are many more reasons people pay for something than owning a physical copy of it.
I may be in the minority (I doubt it), but I have no problem paying for content. This includes books and music. As a now-hobbyest DJ, Beatport was a godsend in terms of being able to get hard to find music and at a high quality. Paying 0.99 - 2.00 per track when I used to pay $10+ per vinyl with 1-2 tracks is fantastic. I think the trick with content is producing high-quality content - this is something people will pay for - and making it stupid easy to attain (This is why P2P music-movie sharing really took off. No need for figuring out FTP or other mechanisms/tools for the layman. Just search and download). I believe the success of the Kindle and the Apple App Store prove this point - it's drop dead stupid simple. Search and download, payment is done in the background. On the news side I'll give an example as well. If my local paper would stop reproducing AP stories and did real investigative journalism on local issues I would gladly pony up for the content. I think the problem with the music and news industries these days is they've effectively turned into content farms...and no one wants to pay for that crap.
