Walking away vs pirating has exactly the same outcomes for the distributor. The only person affected in a nonzero way from the transaction is me, positively. St

Walking away vs pirating has exactly the same outcomes for the distributor. The only person affected in a nonzero way from the transaction is me, positively. Stealing from a store that only takes American Express would result in the store having less inventory; what I have gained, they have lost. The same is not true of copyright infringement. The only time copyright infringement converts into actual quantifiable loss for the seller is if I turn around and sell pirated copies at a lower price, which is why that's the degree of infringement that turns it from civil to criminal.