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Originally Posted by barryem
My problem with calling a pirate a thief is that it says nothing about the pirate. It describes your own feelings. It's an emotional exclamation, not a description. Nothing is gained.
It's similar to the example given in S. I. Hayakawa's book "Language In Thought and Action" where a man see's a woman and exclaims that she's the most beautiful girl in the world. Hayakawa explains that he's said nothing at all about the woman. His statement only describes his own feelings.
I suggest if you'd like to say something about a pirate, you should. Stop talking about yourself so much. 
Barry |
Who has been talking about themselves?
I thought it telling that you brought the highly emotive issue of abortion into the discussion, which you know could have led to the thread going off topic.
Also the term "cheated" as in:
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Since he cheated the owner out of his way of earning an income he obviously didn't steal his income since he no longer had an income to steal.
He sure did cheat him though
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is highly waffly. To me, it's only possible to 'cheat' in gaming. The use of the term to refer to infidelity or outright theft is surely inaccurate. The words which more accurately apply here are 'infidelity' or maybe 'betrayal' and in the second instance 'theft' or 'commercial corruption' maybe.
Interestingly, the friend I had the discussion with maintained that two things were necessary for theft: firstly, that there was only ONE physical item which could be in the possession of Fred or Lenny, but not both; and second that Fred needed to deprive Lenny of the use of the item. He maintained that this doesn't happen in piracy, because if Fred illegally downloads a digital copy of a book written by Lenny, Lenny still has the digital book.
He would not concede that Fred had stolen Lenny's income from the book. (Then in walked the "but he wouldn't have bought it" argument, which is so tiring. There are plenty of Scrooges with lots of money who would rather hoard the money and steal the book if a pirate copy is available, but they would pay for it otherwise.)
He also maintained that if Fred burned down Lenny's house, Fred has committed arson, but not theft. Although he has denied Lenny the use of the house, Fred has not gained the house or it's use.
I disagree with all of this and think that bringing in arguments regarding pyromania fudges the issue in the attempt to prove that depriving someone of something you don't gain the use of is the equivalent to taking something, gaining the use of it without depriving someone else of its use or possession.
Modern technology has brought in the concept of digital theft; the law needs to change to meet this challenge.
I think most of the members of this forum know the difference between telling and showing (the beautiful girl).