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Originally Posted by cmdahler
Semantics. If you get caught, you can get prosecuted period, because you are engaged in illegal activity.
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But you can't be prosecuted
for theft.
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That is the salient fact. Call it what you will, there is no fundamental, philosophical difference between walking into B&N and shoplifting out a book and downloading a torrent.
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The *philosophical* difference is that, when you take a book off the shelves, nobody else has it. When it's distributed by torrents, nobody's lost their chance to read it. That's the core difference between the acts.
Theft takes something away from someone else. Copying doesn't. Copying can still cause harm... just like punching someone can cause harm, and "steal" his ability to work, but it's not prosecuted as theft.