But this is not theft. It’s as simple as that. If you don’t want to argue about semantics then don’t go there and leave it at that.

Of course it's theft.

It's easy saying that it's not via the Internet, but I'd love to see you argue that in court.

“theft; n; /θɛft/

The act of stealing property.”

“steal; v; /stiːl/

To illegally, or without the owner's permission, take possession of something by surreptitiously taking or carrying it away.”

If you steal something then it changes its proprietor. Y’know, like, someone loses the possession of something. But in the case of filesharing things are actually multiplied and more people are enable to use something.
There is no one-to-one translation of physical and intellectual property. They are not the same and there are qualitative differences between the two.

Try that in court and see how far you get.

Again, it's easy to post via the Internet.

EDIT: Just to show how flawed it is to look up a definition, Word Web Pro says for theft:

"The act of taking something from someone unlawfully"........

What’s with the stupid reference to law? A pathetic try at an argumentum ad verecundiam?

Regarding the definition you provided: My point still remains. “Taking” implies a physical act.

It has been tried in court. That's why pirating software is a copyright infringement in most jurisdictions and never larceny (theft) in any jurisdiction.

Software is infinitely and freely reproducible. Right now I can grab my Witcher 2 installation folder and copy it 50 times into separate folders at no cost to myself, the distributor, the publisher, the studio or any legal entity along the way. My original and the that owned by the creator are completely unaffected. We both still have possession of our property. It cannot be theft. It is the very definition of a post-scarcity commodity. The world and its economy has to decide how we're going to deal with these objects that are infinitely and freely reproducible, because the current laws and practice are wildly inappropriate and ineffective.

What it certainly and most assuredly is not is theft.

You used a dictionary definition, and as I showed, that's flawed as it varies depending on the dictionary.

And you seem to be fixated that it can only be a physical act.

If it was only just that, patents and copyright wouldn't exist.

Regardless, whether you call it theft or copyright infringement or any other semantics, you're stealing someone's work and intellectual property.

I'm not talking about a person making copies of a game they own, I don't know where you got that from?

I'm talking about people who pirate a game instead of buying it.

That is theft, you're stealing a person's intellectual property.

And that deprives them of income, regardless of whether most pirates would buy the game or not.

Some certainly would if they had no other way to play it.

People need to get out of this outdated idea that theft can only occur if there is a physical item.

Again, if that were the case patents and copyright wouldn't exist.

No, it deprives them of potential income. Is it equally immoral to play through a game on a friend's computer or buy a game used? The same potential income is lost. Also, you're completely ignoring the possibility of people purchasing the game because they pirated it.

Anyway, we can all argue about the morality and legality of piracy and the antiquated copyright laws surrounding the issue, but the reality is that aside from all of that the industry has to figure out the root causes of piracy and adapt. The music industry didn't, ended up self-destructing, and even now thinks that pushing music into the cloud and refusing to give users ownership is what they want. Putting more effort into fighting piracy than finding creative new ways of introducing and distributing content in a user-friendly way only contributes to the problem and drives more people away.

What planet do you live on... and are you for real?
Next thing you will be telling me that stealing money from someone's account is not a theft because its just virtual numbers...
Theft is theft where an item of value to the owner (regardless of it being virtual or physical item) is taken without permission, full stop.
There is no "but" or "that's your opinion..." it is THE ONLY OPINION.

Yeah, look, that’s the thing. I think that the very notion of “intellectual property” is a steaming pile of inane bullshit. Patents and copyrights were only in brought in place to secure a few oligopolies anyway so fuck them.

Disclaimer: I am not arguing that using commercial software without paying isn’t morally wrong. What I am saying is that it is not equal to theft and any equation of these two terms is just stupid.

You just further proved my point (and apparently you didn’t read my previous posts). If I steal someone’s money from their account they have less than they had before.

But I am not taken anything. I am copying something. Are you people really that dense?

Nice views.

(ok fine.. :D)

---

Now check out the real deal, someone Pirated the game(encouraged or became part of it) and posted a daring commented in the game's forum that "I played the game for free, with my <someone> and will never buy the game until you <do this>"

This is (THE REAL sh**) real time piracy, check it out...what will you do?

-Edited-

http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/jbm8s/piracy_for_dummies/ good post about piracy and discussion

I was so hoping for a proper document/discussion..zZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......

We all know who the real pirates are: The cheap freebies -> Who can own $1000-$2000 computer hardware, but excessively play pirate*(tm) games and help in more piracy among the PRO** tag ELITE** PC group.

I thought that I would buy assassin creed but then I never buy it. It is there in my PC already. I finish the playthrough and hardly play it again. I tried to save some money, but then some money also comes out of my pocket for some reasons.

Same with the WC1

The point is:

1. I am a cheap ass who ordered $14 pizza with delivery, tip the driver for $1 maybe, and don't even buy a discount WC for $5.

2. I am a loser who enjoys 100 hours gameplay, sucks in my class, and has absolutely no remorse for my wrongful act and feels any appreciation to the people around me : the people who deliver me the happiness, the pizza, the game.