Quote:
Originally Posted by starrigger
I find it disingenuous to pretend that it is anything but stealing. It is the misappropriation of something that doesn't belong to you. Makes no difference whether it's digital or physical. "Stealing credit" would be another example of a nonphysical meaning.
I'm not talking about legal definitions, which may differ; I'm talking about ethics and morality. You take something that isn't yours. That's stealing.
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People say "stealing credit"? I honestly cannot say I've heard that phrase come up ("taking credit" perhaps). Anyway, yes language is a lovely thing and we can get all poetic and say that I stole my wife’s heart but in the context of a complex topic that this is, it is (in my opinion) unhelpful to not be clear, which I feel the loose application of the word stealing, or to steal as presented with relation to copyright infringement is.
Stealing has a strong relation to property, and the concept thereof, but to present the notion of physical property and intellectual property as the same is unconstructive to an honest discussion. These are not the same thing. The law recognises that they are not the same thing... and let’s be honest most people see a distinction between the two also. I think by presenting it as stealing you are in fact being dishonest (disingenuous) by being reductionist via the use of less than appropriate terminology.