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Originally Posted by kane
According to my dictionary stealing is defined as: "In the criminal law, theft (also known as stealing) is the illegal taking of another person's property without that person's freely-given consent." Does this not extend to intellectual property? Sure if you download a CD without permission the band may still be in physical possession of the CD, but you have stolen their intellectual property without their permission and without payment. That is stealing which is another word for theft.
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websters defines theft as
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the felonious taking and removing of personal property with intent to deprive the rightful owner of it without that person's freely given consent
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vs fraud
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intentional perversion of truth in order to induce another to part with something of value or to surrender a legal right
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ti quite clear that the copyright infringement is closer to the latter then the former quite simply because you are not depriving the rightful owner of the content.
When you commit an act of copyright infringement you are misrepresenting that you actually have some right to that content (view/listen/install) and that misrepresentation forces the copyright holder to surrender the exclusive right of distribution for a fee (value).