OK, once and for all: To
steal something means that you cause someone else to physically lose it. If you steal a car the owner no longer has a car... if you use your magic replicating machine to materialize an exact copy of someone's car out of thin air, he or she still has a car and the car manufacturer
loses potential profit, by not selling you another car. Naturally, if you make cars, that sucks and you've been cheated... but it still ISN'T "theft" in the traditional sense, because no one can steal something that doesn't exist yet, in this case your
potential profit from selling that other car.
It's bad and wrong and we all want it to go away... but please let's not oversimplify the issue by calling it simply "stealing", ok? If it was that clear cut, don't you think it would be better regulated by now?
