Theft is a very forced metaphor for software piracy

[gergroy]

I don't agree at all, theft is a very proper metaphor and is correctly used.

If you offer a service to people, say you walk their dogs. You would expect to get paid for that service right? What happens when somebody doesn't pay, is that stealing? They stole that time and effort you put forward to walking their dog.

So, if somebody is walking hundreds of dogs, but only half the people pay, the dog walker still gets paid, but not as much as he earned.

Piracy is theft. You can say "oh, but they weren't going to pay for their dogs to get walked anyway." Well thats fine, they shouldn't have their dogs walked then. It's not fair to the other people that paid to have their dogs walked and it most certainly is not fair to the dog walker himself.