[dmaul1114]

I view the harm done as similar to theft, as a person has obtained material that is not freely available without paying for it.

But it's not exactly the same since no physical item has been taken and at best a potential sale was lost (as the person may not have ever bought the item they pirated--with a physical item if they hadn't, at least it could be sold to someone else and now can't since the item is gone).

So I'm ok with coming up with some other term to label the act of stealing/illegally downloading copyrighted digital content.

For me the key is that we as a society come to view illegal downloading as just as wrong as stealing a physical item. As we move into the digital era and eventually ONLY have digital versions of albums, movies, books etc. traditional theft will simply no longer be possible. Copyright infringement, piracy, whatever you want to call it will be the only what "theft" like activities can cost companies sales in these industries.

As long as we start treating is as wrong, as a minor misdemeanor like shoplifting, then I couldn't care less what label we put on the act. I'll leave that to the people who like arguing terminology and semantics.

And I've spent way too much time discussing such issues lately, so that's all I'll say in this thread as my views on the topic are clear.