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You are right in that example, but saying that downloading a file illegaly is stealing is still wrong. It is an broad and overreaching definition of "stealing".
by Fargren 15y ago
You are right in that example, but saying that downloading a file illegaly is stealing is still wrong. It is an broad and overreaching definition of "stealing".
Stealing is the substraction of an object. If I steal something from you, you don't have it anymore. You lose it. If I pirate Avatar, you can still sell it to someone else. If steal your car, its gone unless you get it back from me.
- dextorious 15y agoI hear that argument a lot, but it's not consistent with how we actually use "stealing". I think it's just a feel-good argument to justify that "no harm was done" with downloading a file illegally. For example, we say that "he stole the answers to the exam" --in this case, too, the answers are still there, nobody lost them. Here's what dictionary.com gives for steal: 1. to take (the property of another or others) without permission or right, especially secretly or by force: A pickpocket stole his watch. 2. to appropriate (ideas, credit, words, etc.) without right or acknowledgment. 3. to take, get, or win insidiously, surreptitiously, subtly, or by chance: He stole my girlfriend.