Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim_Gunn
That is a very facile and incorrect interpretation of the law. I think a child could understand that you wouldn't be stealing from the person who "shared" the song in this case, but from the artist who didn't get paid for the use of the song from you, and the thousands or perhaps millions of others who took, used and enjoyed the product or service without paying for it. There are many kinds of theft under the common law including theft of services, theft by deception and other abstract kinds of theft that do not actually involve the physical taking away of an object from it's owner.
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Actually, you would be
violating the copyrights of the artist. Copyright infringement is the appropriate term here, not theft.
While copyright infringement is illegal (like I already said in the post you quoted), using the term "theft" only serves to make it harder to analyze the issue on its own merits. That's because it effectively asserts as fact that intellectual property is a valid concept which functions exactly the same as tangible property does. Since this is the very issue that is being debated, using this terminology is a simple logical fallacy.
Compare it to abortion. When talking about abortion, using the term "murder" instead of "abortion" already implies a conclusion, making it impossible to have a rational, unbiased debate about the issue at hand.