3 ms·

Stealing would be breaking into their premises and taking the computers. Obtaining data isn't stealing.

• pc86 6y ago
  > Obtaining data isn't stealing. What is it then, if you don't have the legal right to the data?
  • __MatrixMan__ 6y ago
    If some law prevents you from having access to some data, then presumably that law has a name for whatever the crime is. It's not like we need the law to explicitly allow types of access. Anything not explicitly disallowed is allowed without a special name. "Stealing" happens when the original owner is deprived of the thing.
  • ddingus 6y ago
    Infringement Seriously. Theft requires the property owner be denied their property. What happened is someone made a copy they were not supposed to. Textbook infringement.
  • young_unixer 6y ago
    It's something different from stealing. Both "hacking" and stealing are illegal in most countries, but they're still completely different actions: one is taking a physical object from someone, the other is sending and receiving electrical pulses trough a wire. You wouldn't call stealing and killing by the same word, either, even though both are illegal.