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Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald
Again with the legal semantics argument. Sigh!
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Semantics is what the law is about. "Theft" is a matter of semantics. (It's not called "theft" when airport security takes someone's laptop, even though it's "taking someone's property without permission." The details of the situation, defined through the filter of legal semantics, tell you whether or not it's "theft.")
If it's "theft" when someone gives a friend a copy of an ebook (note: nobody's property is *missing* in that interaction, and the author has no idea it's occurring at all), why isn't it "theft" to borrow a phyiscal book from the same friend? In both cases, the author is out the price of a book.
What makes the additional copy "theft" and the single copy "not theft?"
Most of us don't define "theft" as "there's more to go around." It's not theft if I set up a free coffee stand next to a Starbuck's and convince their customers not to pay for coffee.