Software piracy - stop calling it "theft" in Tales of Transhumanism

When I was a kid, we'd record music off the radio and make mixtapes. The audio quality of cassette tapes was pretty junk, so the quality of recorded music was nearly as bad as the "authentic" cassette tapes you'd buy at music stores. But we were still recording and making copies of music.

Theft and stealing need physical possession. Software piracy is unauthorized use, because nothing is being stolen. I'm not saying it's not illegal, as many nations have laws against copyright infringement. But calling it theft or stealing is widely inaccurate as there is a very long legal history of what defines theft/larceny, i.e., the taking and carrying away of another person's property with the intent to permanently deprive the owner of the property.

In other words, by stealing the laptops from the store you deprive the owner of using or selling said laptops. With software piracy, you're making a copy of music/software/media and using it in an a fashion the owner of the intellectual property has not authorized. The owner of the property has not been deprived of their ability to use their property.

In a criminal setting it is wrong because there are criminal statutes against software piracy, in a civil setting it is wrong because it is copyright infringement and the person who is pirating is being unjustly enriched by receiving a service (use of software/music/etc) without adequately paying for it.

But when you download a song, a movie, a game, whatever, you are depriving no-one of nothing. In other words, software piracy is NOT theft.

Disclaimer: I'm not condoning piracy - it's up to you to decide what is right or wrong here. All I'm saying is that there is NO evidence to suggest that piracy harms the entertainment industry. In fact, there is a lot of evidence to suggest the complete opposite; sales have never been higher, in the software, movies and music industry. Oddly enough, the figures that are routinely whipped out to show that piracy does harm the developers are usually commissioned by industry figures like the MPAA. How convenient.

Still not convinced? I'll just leave this here.