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It's not theft, it's copyright infringement and is very morally and practically different from theft. The range of circumstances in which it is morally accepta
by concordDance 3y ago
It's not theft, it's copyright infringement and is very morally and practically different from theft.
The range of circumstances in which it is morally acceptable are MUCH broader.
- pl4nty 3y agoin my country, copying source code is definitely theft and is contractually enforced. but reproducing similar concepts/architectures from memory happens often
- whimsicalism 3y agoIt's quite literally IP theft, not just copyright infringement.
- concordDance 3y agoYour jurisdiction may have a law called "IP theft" or it may not, either way the moral category of "theft" does nor apply. (Also, if it was theft this particular example would be theft in the same way that taking a book from someone's recycling bin would be theft: no one is worse off)
- troupe 3y agoThere are situations where developers emailed/cloud uploaded/took hard drive of code they had been working on when he left the organization and were looking at prison sentences for theft...not copyright infringement. They didn't even give it to someone or reuse it somewhere. Just the fact of trying to keep it when they left as illegal. All that to say that in some circumstances taking source code is considered theft.
- concordDance 3y agoGot a link?
- aidansmith 3y agoLook up Sergey Aleynikov.
- concordDance 3y ago"Theft of trade secrets" is a specific legal term, not a subset of theft.