Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
So does "piracy", but people seem perfectly happy to use that, even though copyright infringement has absolutely nothing to do with robbery at sea, which is what piracy actually is.
We can't control what people call things. Like it or not, some people use the word "theft" for copyright infringement, just as other people use the word "piracy"; both are of course, technically incorrect, but language is a living, evolving, thing. It's futile to try to dictate to people what they should or should not call something.
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I would point out that your second paragraph essentially points out that using the word piracy and/or theft for illegally distributing files is now in fact appropriate. In English at least, many words have a one to many relationship.. I.e., a word can have multiple meanings some of which have very little to do with the original meaning of the word.
In addition, there tends to be legal definitions which often overlap with some of the common definitions of words. However, they don't limit the common use of the language.
So, I move that we abandon these pointless discussions by arm chair lawyers about whether file sharing is theft or piracy. Depending on your prespective its neither or both... or both neither and both at the same time.
The real questions are whether it should be legal and or whether it is ethical.
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Bill