4 ms·

>> When does the act of stealing occur? If I download a torrent and then delete it without watching/playing/listening, did I steal it? Yes, welcome to adulthoo

• ColMustard 15y ago
  No. Adulthood has nothing to do with the fact that everyone is using a word that doesn't accurately describe the action taken. Just because it's not stealing doesn't mean it's not illegal. You can't call anything that's illegal "stealing". It's piracy, which is illegal, but a different act than stealing. People who started calling piracy stealing are the same people that cannot accurately understand what is actually happening, and people who benefit from calling it stealing instead of correctly portraiting it as it's own crime. The desensitized image of piracy that people have is somewhat close to the way some people have a desensitized image of credit card fraud. The image that you're hurting a faceless corporation, and not an actual person. Introducing the moral part in an action that doesn't accurately portray a victim is the hard part. When stealing it's easy because you can relate and imagine the victim of an action.
  • JonWood 15y ago
    I love that you have a problem with people calling copyright infringement "stealing", but no qualms at all about calling it "piracy" instead, which is an entirely different affair. Certainly the last time I downloaded a TV program I did using BitTorrent, rather than boarding the content producer's boat and taking it with force.
    • Karunamon 15y ago
      >I love that you have a problem with people calling copyright infringement "stealing", but no qualms at all about calling it "piracy" instead, which is an entirely different affair. Pirate, verb, sense 3: The unauthorized use or reproduction of another's work - to pirate software Steal, from the dictionary, first and only sense as a verb: Take (another person's property) without permission or legal right and without intending to return it: "thieves stole her bicycle". This is not that difficult to understand.
    • ColMustard 15y ago
      You are aware that the definition of piracy and pirating has been changed since the 1600's I hope? Here's a link: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/piracy http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/piracy
• Anderkent 15y ago
  If I write random bits to a file and it turns out to be a Star Wars movie, did I steal it?
  • deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  • zanek 15y ago
    I was thinking the same thing ! I would actually go one step further. How can anyone OWN information (music,movies,software,etc) which is really binary which is really one big ass number (in base 2). How can you OWN a number ? It doesnt make any sense to me, and I'm a software developer that makes products. Its like saying, "I own the file represented by 23445353568893534534565767525454546422223346445646" and you have to pay me use that number. Sounds pretty dumb when you really break down this entire intellectual property issue
    • jebblue 15y ago
      Think of that number as though it were a house, instead of breaking in and stealing its content, you download the whole house, does that make it less significant?
      • zanek 15y ago
        It's not a house, it's an abstract thing. How can you own a number ?
      • Anderkent 15y ago
        Did you lose your house? If not, then I don't see the issue - I saw your house, copied it, now we both have one.
  • demigod 15y ago
    No you didnt if you made up the bits, wrote them, and didnt copy off from a star wars DVD, and in real world once you have written the bits there is no way to know whether you copied it or wrote it by yourself so we compare it with the original and if there is an overbearing similarity then it is considered as piracy or stealing.