Quote:
Originally Posted by BookCat
Under barryem and my friend's definition of 'theft' Joe didn't steal from the library owner. But I contend that in 'stealing' the content of the books he's deprived the library owner of his income, therefore has stolen money from him.
So despite the fact that none of the books from the library were permanently taken by Joe, the effect was the same.
barryem's and my friend's definition of stealing is too narrow, in my opinion.
This discussion went on for about two hours.  |
I think we can agree that Joe did something wrong; probably even criminal. I think "cheating" might describe it better than stealing. But stealing does carry more emotional weight so it's a more popular choice to describe something you hate.
A few weeks ago a bunch of us were talking over coffee here in my retirement home and someone mentioned abortion. I forget the reference. A woman sitting next to me exclaimed "But abortion is murder!" I explained that murder is a legal term that means the unlawful taking of a life and that since abortion is legal it's not murder. I even googled "murder" and pulled up the definition to show her. She finally agreed that it wasn't murder.
A few days later someone else mentioned abortion and again she exclaimed that abortion is murder. This time I kept my mouth shut.
I looked up definitions of "stealing" to back up my claim but they're pretty vague and numerous and varied. So I looked up "theft", hoping to make my point with it's clearer definition: "the felonious taking and removing of personal property with intent to deprive the rightful owner of it"
Please keep in mind that I'm not arguing that piracy is okay. It's not! I just think stealing is the wrong word to describe it. It does stir up feelings if that's your intention but I don't think it's very accurate.
My neighbor calls abortion murder even though she now knows it's not because she wants to make sure everyone feels about abortion as she does. That could easily lead to a discussion of whether she's lying. Shall I look up lying?
My brother, a real estate guy and a former used car salesman, and I have been having a friendly argument for decades about whether lying is saying untrue words or using true words to convince someone of an untruth. For example, a used car dealer gets in a very nice looking used car that's in very poor mechanical condition. He calls his grandmother to come by his lot and drive that car to the grocery store. Later that day he's showing it to a young couple and he tells them that it was driven by a little old lady to buy groceries. They buy the car. Has he lied to them? I say yes. My brother says no. God won't settle this so we just keep arguing about it. God probably won't tell us whether piracy is stealing, either, but I bet a judge would say it's not. He might send the pirate to jail but he wouldn't call it stealing.
Barry