IMO the real reason people feel free to steal books is that there is very little respect for writers and writing so our product is devalued and viewed as more or less worthless.  How many times have you heard someone say s/he could write a book if only s/he had the time?  And how many think because they can write a memo or business letter, they can write a book, too?  "Anyone can do it"  is a fairly common attitude.

Screenwriters are the bottom of the LA totem pole even tho movies wouldn't exist without them/us.  Remember the old joke about the blonde actress who was so dumb she slept with the writer?  Or the early Hollywood mogul who called the writers "Schmucks with Underwoods"  (Underwood was a brand of typewriter in the days way before computers.)

Of the experience of a friend of mine, a bestselling novelist.  She was sitting in her editor's office when the publisher came in, complained about some difficulty with a writer and said -- and I quote -- "This would be a great business without the writers."

All this, even tho the craving for a story seems hard wired in the human species starting in earliest childhood..."Tell me a story —" a need seemingly almost as necessary as food and water.