wk1 free choice

Maybe this is me being unappreciative, but I don't understand why copyright law needs to be so harsh. I mean, I know you need to give credit where credit is due, but I feel like some of this stuff is a little ridiculous. Does everything always need to be about money? I'm not saying that if you create something it should be public property for anyone to use, but I feel like if it was me, I'd be ok with just people telling everyone that they got it from me. Then again, I'm not an artist. I don't do a lot of creating, and I consider myself a sharer. Isn't it true what they say: imitation is the best form of flattery? I think most people don't mean to use stuff maliciously- they just really like it and are inspired by it. I feel like the world is too money hungry (you can sue anyone for just about anything it seems like), and it's hurting us more than it's helping. Let's say there is a copyright infringement. Won't that take forever in paperwork and courts to get settled costing even more money? I don't know. There's always a few rules (or in this case, laws) that we might not agree with but that we need to follow anyway. I guess this is the case for me.

Is it like shoplifting? 

Image from creativecommons.org