Seems you've got it backwards. The people who pirate music take the easy road: Violate a copyright with a small risk (for now) of getting caught, and thereby saving hundreds or thousands of dollars. The people who don't pirate music take the more difficult path... They part with their dollars, knowing full well that they could just violate copyright and save this money. But they don't out of principle and respect for the artists (as well as respect for the law).
And the law is often nothing more than a half-assed attempt to justify the will of the tyrant.
These laws aren't anything new. Copyright law dates back to our original Constitution.