The popular view of this issue seems to be "screw the recording companies". I don't agree.
People have a Constitutional right (and a moral one too) to be compensated for their creative efforts. Like it or not, the recording industry provides a conduit for artists to distribute their works to a widespread general public and be compensated accordingly. Any system that would lead to so much free copying that would crimp that compensation is wrong and some sort of control is needed.
So, the issue isn't whether there should be controls, but what kind of controls are appropriate.
I, for example, copy music from a CD or phonograph record onto a tape cassette that is easier for me to listen to. I wouldn't want to be prohibited from making such copies since I properly paid for the music in the first place.
The challenge of the Internet is that the technology makes it really easy to make perfect copies and distribute them widely. Sure, in the past one could borrow a record and tape it and plenty of people did just that. But that still took some effort and quality suffered; often it was easier just to buy your own record. Today it's no effort at all and quality is perfect.
The recording industry isn't blameless either. In the past, one could buy inexpensive 45s of a single song they liked, that's hard and more expensive today. The cost of CDs seem to be much more than records were even allowing for inflation. Given that it's easy and cheap to make CDs today, they should sell singles just like 45s of the old days.