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Here, I'll break it down for you:
1) In pirating, someone who has not acquired the artist's consent is receiving his art.
2) In copying a purchased CD, someone who has acquired the artist's consent to acquire the art itself is making a copy of that art for personal use. In this scenario, and in this scenario only, do your arguments about the worth of a digital copy apply. You seem to be confused between theft as a whole and larceny. Theft of a digital entity can only be through taking art; it is never larceny to steal a digital thing. The instant those MP3s appear on a file-sharing network, though, that person has committed theft.
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