You're Not Going to Copy, Right??

I have always been an ethical person. Probably too ethical. I like to follow the rules and not break the law. What's so bad about that? Jason Hardin says that I am a great person...well, not in so many words, but that's what I got out of what he said today.
All joking aside, I actually learned a lot from Mr. Hardin today about the issue of copyright. I did not realize that this issue has been around since 1790! That's a long time...like over 200 years (I'm not a math major so I'm not going to waste the time doing the math...but I think it's like 219 years if we're going from 1790...I guess I couldn't leave the question unanswered!), which really amazed me. Here on campus, our university librarian is in charge of copyright, so if anyone violates copyright law, our librarian is obliged to give information to the copyright officer (who sends the librarian a take-down notice when this happens). I think that this would be a difficult situation to be in: to be the one obligated to tattletale?! I would find that challenging, especially if it was someone I knew who copyrighted property. Of course, I still believe that the librarian should turn everyone in who copyrights because it is, you know, illegal, but I am just saying that it would probably be a hard job (and that our librarian should be respected for it).
Another issue I was thinking about is one that is common to everyone: sharing music. And I was thinking more about sharing music by burning CDs (the old school way), rather than using filesharing software like Limewire. This is a major issue because it cannot be monitored as well over the internet. And yet, according to what I learned in Mr. Hardin's lecture, it is illegal because only one person has paid for the music that they have shared with all their friends. This means that Taylor Swift is not getting paid a fair amount for her new single on iTunes (no, she does not have a new single right now, but just go with me). And we would not want to hurt Taylor Swift, would we? She deserves to get paid for the music she makes, as do all other artists. So even though it can be an easy way to get that song you've been wanting, it is not a legal activity to burn someone else a copy of a CD you just bought.
There are so many other things I learned in this lecture, but I feel like I'm writing too much again...we were only supposed to discuss one issue, and I already discussed 2 so... ;-)