Defend, refute, or qualify: pirating music is morally and ethically wrong.

To qualify an opinion regarding this topic, whether pirating music is morally and ethically wrong, it would be prudent to see how the majority, that being society as a whole, has enacted rules of law to protect digital media.  The simple answer is that music published with copyrights is governed by the owner, or in this case, the artist.  While society stands on the rule of law, it is interesting to see the very constituents violating this law and crying fowl.  And pirating is rampant across the board, from kids to the elderly, irregardless of race, status, or circumstance, pirating music is a growing industry.  Here's the rub for the artist, where traditional stamps (records), or now CDs and DVDs, are produced for distribution.  There are costs involved, passed on to the consumer, that impact the artists investments for these products.  However, the traditional delivery of the media is fragmenting, where vinyl was replaced by cassettes, and now CDs/DVDs, there is still a cost involved.  And when these units do not sell, it is considered sunken costs, money lost and irreplaceable by the artist.  So when someone takes a purchased copy and produces copies for personal use, that is one thing.  However, reselling a copy of an original takes away from one of the produced units.  That is theft.  Imagine for the moment you walk into a music store, pop in a CD and make a digital copy, then put the CD back.  Is that legal?  Would the store owner allow it?  Would the artist condone it?  Obviously, the answer is no.   Thus, digital piracy is also morally and ethically wrong.