Piracy explicitly is not stealing. Theft requires denying the owner of the ability to use the thing that is stolen. Copyright infringement does not meet this bar, and is not a crime in the vast majority of cases. Commercial copyright infringement is the only offense classed as a crime, which in a nutshell is piracy for profit ie selling pirated material.

[–] 001100010010@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

Someone: Photographs pages of a book in a book store

OP: "Hello Police? Someone is stealing a book!"

[–] CookieJarObserver@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can steal digital goods, but to do so you have to copy it and erase the original. Otherwise its just copying.

[–] Shere_Khan@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's dumb. If you are supposed to pay for something and you just take it instead, you stole it. You can argue word meanings and technicallies all day, but it's a lot easier to just be real about what we are doing here.

[–] Poggervania@kbin.social -1 points 1 year ago

Theft is the taking of another person’s personal property with the intent of depriving that person of the use of their property.

If you stole a car, you physically took something away from somebody. If you download a car, the original is still there - you’re just making an exact copy for yourself for free. Same if you swiped a candy bar at a gas station - you’re depriving that gas station the use of their property, which is to sell and make money. If you download a candy bar, nothing is taken and the gas station can still sell the original.

So let’s be crystal clear here: what’s happening is not theft, because nothing was taken and the owner is not deprived of the use of their property. Can you argue that you’re getting something for free when you shouldn’t? Yes, and that’s more in line of denying profits rather than actual theft.