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If you take money out of an author/musician/artist’s hand for a work they created. You can call it anything you desire but it’s theft and piracy.

Fnoord 8y ago
So if I decide not to take the bus its theft as well? If I decide to steal a bicycle, its theft from the bus company?
- greglindahl 8y ago
  If I visit an ad-supported website and fail to look at the ads, is that theft?
  - darkpuma 8y ago
    Incredible as it may seem, I've actually seen that asserted. Years ago when I was a kid, before we had internet, my family would get a lot of magazines. Whoever picked up the mail, usually whoever came home most recently after it was delivered, would flip through every magazine and tear out all the advertisements and throw them in the trash before putting the magazine on the counter for the family to read. I wonder, was that 'theft'? We also used to change the channel or mute the television/radio whenever advertisements came on. Was that 'theft'? Usually people who call adblocking theft start squirming when these pre-digital examples of ad avoidance are put to them.
vkou 8y ago
Unless that author, musician, or artist operated in a vacuum, their work is a direct derivative of the work of other authors, musicians, and artists. Every dollar a musician earns I'd, therefore, a dollar they take out of the hand of the musicians, whose work they based theirs off of. This is why the public domain exists. You can make derivative works without paying anyone... But your work will fall into the public domain, so that you pass this benefit on to the next generation.
EliRivers 8y ago
You're conflating literal theft with metaphorical theft. One of them is theft; the other isn't.
johnisgood 8y ago
But you don't take money out of their hand, because there is no money to take out to begin with. Or did you mean imaginary money? If you did, well, I could come up with many different ways as to how you are doing the exact same thing to virtually anyone. :P Anyways, you can't physically remove and deprive an owner of an idea. It doesn't fit the definition of theft at all.

Fnoord 8y ago

So if I decide not to take the bus its theft as well? If I decide to steal a bicycle, its theft from the bus company?

greglindahl 8y ago
If I visit an ad-supported website and fail to look at the ads, is that theft?
- darkpuma 8y ago
  Incredible as it may seem, I've actually seen that asserted. Years ago when I was a kid, before we had internet, my family would get a lot of magazines. Whoever picked up the mail, usually whoever came home most recently after it was delivered, would flip through every magazine and tear out all the advertisements and throw them in the trash before putting the magazine on the counter for the family to read. I wonder, was that 'theft'? We also used to change the channel or mute the television/radio whenever advertisements came on. Was that 'theft'? Usually people who call adblocking theft start squirming when these pre-digital examples of ad avoidance are put to them.

vkou 8y ago

Unless that author, musician, or artist operated in a vacuum, their work is a direct derivative of the work of other authors, musicians, and artists. Every dollar a musician earns I'd, therefore, a dollar they take out of the hand of the musicians, whose work they based theirs off of. This is why the public domain exists. You can make derivative works without paying anyone... But your work will fall into the public domain, so that you pass this benefit on to the next generation.

EliRivers 8y ago

You're conflating literal theft with metaphorical theft. One of them is theft; the other isn't.

johnisgood 8y ago

But you don't take money out of their hand, because there is no money to take out to begin with. Or did you mean imaginary money? If you did, well, I could come up with many different ways as to how you are doing the exact same thing to virtually anyone. :P Anyways, you can't physically remove and deprive an owner of an idea. It doesn't fit the definition of theft at all.