Absent a government-granted temporary monopoly, the market would be willing to pay very little. So it ends up a bit circular when debating government IP policies.

The "people who download the most also purchase the most" stories that pop up every six months or so disagree. Even many of the people with the most awareness of the fact that they could get stuff for free are willing to pay the current market rates for a lot of it. It's been almost 14 years since Napster. A decade since suprnova and widespread availability of torrents for movies and TV shows. And yet the floor still hasn't fallen out of market prices. Things are changing in the creation and distribution world, but I see little indication that some substantial part of the population has decided that we're paying content creators too much, and that a song, show, movie, book, or game is only worth very little.