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Cooywright is society's tool to encourage the public good of book writing.
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Actually that statement is, if not false, then atleast very much open for dispute.
Historically copyright has had the exact opposite effect. It arguably resulted in Verdi reducing his effort at composition, while Beethoven who did not benefit from any copyright laws produced a big amount of high quality compositions.
The introduction of Copyright in the UK at 1710 resulted in the UK having a reduced book market with few high priced books (Which I know you like
), while Germany at the same age had a thriving book market, mass producing and benefiting authors, publishers and readers alike.
While old historical facts only tells us, well what difference there was before Copyright, it's easy to see today aswell that Copyright in both the music and book industry has allowed recording companies and publishing companies to maintain old business models at the detriment at consumers. It's served as a stopgab hindering progress we as consumers could benefit from.
I firmly believe that just as publishing companies theoretically can charge whatever they want for a product, and lobby for comparing information with physical products letting ownership far transcend the creators lifetime. We as consumers can express opinions to the contrary, try to achieve copyright laws more beneficial to us and prices that'll actually allow everyone full access to these books. As long as there's a demand for books, no matter what the pricepoint, smart business people will always find a way to profit from it and some authors will always want to create.