This was a ruling in 1985 based on physical theft laws being applied to copyright. <s>It also never made it to the Supreme Court.</s> (edited -- sorry misread t

This was a ruling in 1985 based on physical theft laws being applied to copyright. <s>It also never made it to the Supreme Court.</s> (edited -- sorry misread this part) Since then, many other laws have been passed, and it's likely that SCOTUS would apply those rather than using this case as a precedent. They didn't make a sweeping judgement about the meaning of copyright -- only declared that a laws about theft did not apply to copyright. Specific Copyright laws passed after 1985 would probably still apply. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowling_v._United_States_(1985) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowling_v._United_States_(1985)