End of discussion – theft not equivalent to copyright infringement

Once and for all: copying or file-sharing is not in any way equivalent to stealing. The debate has been flaming for a while now on forums despite the answer being obvious to any reasonably sensible person.

Just for the sake of rigour, let’s examine the statement first. Why is it relevant to the file-sharing debate? Of course, it’s not relevant at all – if you think something is bad, do you have to apply to the label of theft to it in order for it to truly be some kind of wrong-doing? No, stupid. If you want to say that copyright infringement is wrong, then do it, but go on to say that the same act is actually also theft and you will prove yourself incapable of grasping the simplest of concepts (which is the telling characteristic of a fool). With that cleared up, let’s go on to explain why file-sharing is not theft.

Theft is the act of stealing property, with the intent of permanently depriving the owner of that same property.

If somebody is file-sharing, and let’s say for the sake of the discussion that the file being shared is protected by copyright, the person availing of the file being shared is only making an almost exactly perfect copy, while the original owner is never deprived of the file. Thus file-sharing does not in any way include theft.

All this says nothing whatsoever on whether copyright-infringement piracy is morally acceptable or not, it’s just intended to take the focus away from the false simile of theft.