Originally Posted by potter

For starters, it's not stealing and it's not theft.

If someone steals a tangible product, that product no longer exists to the retailer or producer. ie; If someone makes a TV, and goes to sell it, but someone steals it. That TV is gone from the store. That is stealing, that is theft.

If someone downloads a digital product, they are not stealing. They are making a copy of the original product to their own computer. So there are now TWO of the product. If someone makes a TV, and goes to sell it, but someone comes into the store with a TV replicating device and copies the TV, then walks out with their copy. The retailer didn't loose their TV.

There is a law designed specifically for this situation. It's the United States Copyright Law. When that person made a copy of the TV, the very moment they then possessed the copy, they were required to have a license to the copy. If they don't own the license they are then committing copyright infringement. They aren't stealing, and they aren't thieves. They've simply committed copyright infringement.


... The problem, is that people will sit online all day crying like babies. Waaa waaa waaaa, internet piracy is stealing waaa waaaa waaaa torrents are bad.

That doesn't solve anything, and there is no police force out there that is going to come to your rescue. YOU made a product, YOU have a copyright, YOU need to get off your ass and protect that copyright. It's as simple as that. The laws and legal system is in place for YOU to protect your products and copyrights. It's not the other way around, there isn't some magical being out there to do your own work. If YOU want to own a copyright, it's up to YOU to protect that copyright.

So quit whining and having moot discussions on if piracy is theft. It's not, it's copyright infringement. So go protect your copyright.