Is online piracy theft?

Is online piracy theft?

  • Yes

    Votes: 65 23.9%

  • No

    Votes: 168 61.8%

  • Other

    Votes: 39 14.3%
  • Total voters
    272
No. It is unlawful copying.

Theft as a word for me should be reserved for taking something in a way that denies its use to the rightful owner. Like if you steal a car the owner no longer has the car to drive.

Copying something does not deny the use to the owner, nor is it necessarily stealing the "entrance or watching fee" as many who do pirate would never pay to watch all that they download regardless. Some would, but many can never. For me its similar to sneaking into a movie cinema when you did not pay.

Not that I am saying it is right, but it is a reality in the world that companies have to deal with. And they should be smart about it.

As a kid with almost no money I pirated games. As a result I became a gamer. Now that I have money I buy all my games and no longer pirate as I actually do like supporting the devs. If anti piracy measures where so effective that I could not play games as a kid I would probably have a different hobby and so would not be spending money now on games. Hence if you are a gaming company it makes sense to tolerate some piracy, especially amoung scholars and poor students hoping to cash in not on the current game but the game you release 10 years from now. Anyways, its emotive. I see both sides, and can argue both sides, but it is what it is.
 
NeonNinja said:
Piracy is copyright infringement. It is not theft.

With theft you deprive the owner of the original property. Piracy is making a copy.
Click to expand...

Also the issue is often with licensing, not the content itself. Some of the logic around it can be quite dumb.

If I buy a DVD, i can show it to my circle of friends just fine. If I show it to the public however, I need a public performance license. I can go out, make 10 friends that day and show them the movie legally, but if I setup a projector in public I am breaking the law.

There is also issues with who gets the financial gain of the pirated content.
 
The consumption of the material is not theft..... the refusal to compensate the creators if you have the ability to though is theft.
 
rambo919 said:
The consumption of the material is not theft..... the refusal to compensate the creators if you have the ability to though is theft.
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So every time I take book out of the library I must pay the author/publisher a fee?
Been going to the library for over 30 years and never knew that.
 
This is a stupid debate / question.

Argue the rightness or wrongess of piracy if you want. We already have a word for the illegal acquisition of digital stuff: PIRACY. The debate about whether to use some other word (theft) is stupid.
 
WollieVerstege said:
So every time I take book out of the library I must pay the author/publisher a fee?
Been going to the library for over 30 years and never knew that.
Click to expand...
Libraries are different because there is a hard agreement in place.
 
saor said:
This is a stupid debate / question.

Argue the rightness or wrongess of piracy if you want. We already have a word: PIRACY. The debate about whether to use some other word (theft) is stupid.
Click to expand...
The use of that word is not only inaccurate but clearly semantic warfare..... think about it.

The word piracy does not actually describe what is happening, using it to define the morality of the action is illogical.
 
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