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Originally Posted by Wasgo
That's why music groups have pushed so hard lately to get copyright infringement labelled as theft. It works reasonably well in some contexts, like illegal downloading, but in others, like illegal public performance, which can even include playing music you've purchased at a house party, it doesn't.
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It also falls short when describing derivatives/transformative works based on something else. While an unauthorized comic book version of a movie (or vice-versa) may be copyright infringement, it's hard to think of it as "theft."
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We definitely need a word though to describe obtaining copyrighted works without ownership or license, separate from copyright infringement. Copyright infringement is too broad, and specific offences should have specific words. I'm not overly fond of theft, but right now it's the most prevalent term.
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Except that it's not always illegal. It's definitely not always criminal; in many situations, it's entirely a civil offense, and it's up to the copyright holder to decide whether or not to attempt to stop it. (This is like a breach of contract in which one party decides not to bother going after the other... if your rental agreement says "no pets," your landlord isn't required to make you give up your goldfish in order to sue the guy who's breeding fighting dogs in his apartment.)
I can accept the term "piracy" better than "theft." Theft is a crime. Piracy is... often a matter of perspective. One country's "piracy" may be another nation's "privateering." If it's illegal, it may still not be immoral, depending on the situation--piracy can be used to get around excessive tariffs that only serve to bolster corporations, at the expense of both creators and end-users. Piracy was a method of survival, not getting rich, for people who had no other recourse (and while digital piracy doesn't involve necessities, it does involve educational and cultural materials that are unavailable in many areas at anything like a reasonable price).
Theft takes away someone's personal property. Piracy takes things that may not have a legitimate owner, that may have been stolen themselves. (How evil is it to pirate books & music that would've been in the public domain if copyright hadn't been extended? Who benefits from prosecuting such cases?)
When I'm being technical, I say "unauthorized copying." That makes it clear that the legalities are debatable. In casual conversation, I use the term "piracy."