There are a few
significant differences between the two. First, stealing implies that
by taking an object, you are depriving someone else of its use. That
isn't possible with movie files. If I rent a movie from the store and
rip it to my hard drive, it does absolutely no damage to the disc
itself. When I return that movie the next day, the next customer gets
exactly the same experience. I haven't deprived anybody of anything.
"Second, and
this is the crucial distinction, stealing is a criminal matter,
whereas copyright infringement is a civil matter. All of the
anti-piracy things you see before movies couch things in terms of
stealing for some very specific and nefarious reasons. If you steal
something, you can end up with jail time if you are caught. However,
with copyright infringement, the only thing the movie companies can
do is sue you for damages. There is no way that you will ever end up
in prison for infringing copyright, which is the most important
difference. Movie studios and anti-piracy groups put it in terms of
stealing for intentionally misleading purposes – they want to scare
people into not pirating films because, when it comes down to it,
they have no recourse whatsoever."
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