Quote:
Originally Posted by Socrates
If I just wanted to make one thing clear in this debate, this would be the following: copying a digital file is not stealing. Stealing is taking away a good from someone. When I go to a store, grab a DVD and run away with it, I steal it: the DVD is no longer in the store. The original work is still there, but it will cost something to create a new plastic-made DVD to compensate. When I illegally copy a movie online, nothing is stolen: what is missing on the other hand? The object "movie" was copied thanks to immaterial property. You cannot copy a DVD today. Not in the sense that, you put the DVD in a machine, and voilą, a new DVD is created out of thin air.
This is the very technological reason why there has been a debate for 15 years.
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If you copy or "lent heavily" from a painting, or a car design, nothing is taken away. So that is not plagiarism? If James Bond goes to China and makes pictures of their secret attack plans, nothing is taken away. So that is not espionage? You own something that is not lawfully yours. Whether you call this stealing, fraud or whatever else from the books of law is nitpicking: it doesn't make it legal.