StingingVelvet wrote on Nov 27, 2011, 11:12:
Teddy wrote on Nov 27, 2011, 07:59:
The LAW says that Piracy, be it music, video or software IS NOT THEFT. They have plenty of categories of theft, from petty theft, grand theft, larceny, robbery, and note that NOT ONE OF THOSE CATEGORIES is piracy related. Not one.
You're welcome to ignore the personal attacks, I throw them in because you've earned them. Particularly by being such a complete and utter hypocrite. You accuse me of not bothering to read everything when you conveniently skip over the parts of everyone's posts where they explain IN DETAIL that they're well aware that piracy is wrong and illegal, yet you still accuse them of trying to rationalize or justify because they don't agree with your idiotic, incorrect (and completely proven so) definition of piracy.
You are 100% correct, legally it is not theft. That said, I don't begrudge people calling it that, because it's a colloquialism. "He stole my girlfriend" or "she took my idea" and other such things are good examples. Whether actual property or ownership is involved or not we often use "theft" and "took" and "stole" as slang terms.
I object to misuse of language in general, and I specifically object to the misuse of it when speaking about legal issues. People spreading misinformation about the law does a disservice to everyone.
The only reason these people want to call it theft is because theft has a more intrinsic negative emotional response since most people have had something stolen from them in their life. The argument is that it makes it easier to convince people that it's wrong if they can convince them that it's 'theft'. The problem with that is that it's an outright lie. It's fraudulent and they know it, and that is what I refuse to accept.
So rather than try to educate people on what the actual law is and why it's important, the industry simply lies and there are people out there that think it's OK. Worse, they do everything in their power to try and spread the lie.
This is the same industry that lies on it's taxes to screw people who did their jobs well out of royalties owed, remember. Yep, Forrest Gump was a huge financial failure, can't afford to pay you, sorry. Avatar? Yes we know it was the biggest selling movie of all time, just... eh... not big enough. Sorry.
Our industry is dying, you need to enact new laws to save us! What? We've set record profits every year for the last 10 years? Never mind that, JUST SAVE US!
Why anyone believes a word they say baffles the crap out of me.