You can't deprive someone of something they may or may not have had. Copyright infringement is legally not defined as theft for this reason. Where it gets real

You can't deprive someone of something they may or may not have had. Copyright infringement is legally not defined as theft for this reason. Where it gets really muddy is whether copyright infringement causes any harm at all. We've had interest groups claiming millions of dollars worth of potential sales lost and we've had studies showing that actually piracy may be a net benefit to creators due to increased market exposure. All of this pontification can be put aside though. China does not enforce copyright or most other IP laws, and yet has a thriving entertainment, engineering, literary, etc. industry. So clearly IP protection is not critical for innovation or a healthy industry, as interest groups here would have us believe.