
When Stealing Isn't Stealing - llambda
http://nytimes.com/2012/03/29/opinion/theft-law-in-the-21st-century.html?_r=2&ref=opinion&pagewanted=all
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paulhauggis
Identity theft is still called "theft", when in reality, nothing is really
stolen, you information is merely copied.

If I copied your credit card number and sold in a big list to someone online
(note: I didn't use the number to actually charge anything, I am just selling
the numbers), it would still be called "theft" in all of the newspapers and
under the law.

Let's not forget the whole Thesis theme debacle a little over a year ago. Tons
of people here on HN were screaming that they _stole_ source code. Wouldn't
the source code have to be physically taken for it to be considered stolen
(according to this article)?

Whenever I see an article talking about how pirating shouldn't be called
theft, it's usually because the original author believes it should be legal.

It's actually closer to counterfeiting than theft. When you steal a car,
General Motors doesn't lose an entire product line.

When there is mass counterfeiting of something digital, the original author
will slowly start to lose the ability to sell the product.

Why? Because the cost of a digital item is only what people are willing to
pay. If the majority of people know they can get it for free (with no
penalty), they will download it for free and you will have a difficult time in
the future convincing them to pay for it.

You essentially are competing with yourself, but $0 cost being the difference.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
Identity theft is called that by banks to try and distract attention from the
fact that they have fallen victim to fraud and are trying to pass the
consequences onto their customers. And it's mostly worked. Words have power.

.

