Piracy is not theft because you didn't lose anything and I wasn't going to buy it anyway. Piracy is still theft because you are freely taking value from someth

Piracy is not theft because you didn't lose anything and I wasn't going to buy it anyway. Piracy is still theft because you are freely taking value from something that I'm not willing to give. Maybe a better analogy is invasion of privacy... I don't think pirates would be as proud if they were referred to as "software peeping-toms". Piracy is not theft because buying your product is more hassle than it's worth to me. Besides, I'm giving you free advertising by sharing your product with my friends. Piracy is still theft because how poorly I price, distribute and market my product are my mistakes to make. When you make these decisions for me, you are putting my livelihood at risk. That's my job, not yours. These issues are much softer than material theft, but they are still issues. I don't condemn pirates. I just regret how much harder it is to make good products because of piracy. For every 1000 pirates claiming to be helping developers against their will, there is another small developer that telling stories of how much their sales increase for a few weeks each time they update their anti-piracy measures.