Theft is a very forced metaphor for software piracy

[Onyxmeth]

gergroy said:

Onyxmeth said:

gergroy said:

Onyxmeth said:

gergroy said:
@ Onyx
Well, here is something like I was talking about. This guy was arrest for not paying his rental service fees. Notice he is arrested for third degree theft of services.
http://blog.nj.com/reporter/2008/01/man_arrested_for_theft_of_serv.html
Here is the wiki definition of theft of services
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theft_of_services
This guy was arrested for punching his cab driver and not paying the cab fare
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2041123/patrick_kane_arrested_for_robbery_and.html?cat=14
This guy was arrested for stealing electricity
http://tdworld.com/overhead_distribution/peco-theft-arrest-0309/

anyway, you get my point. Stealing a service is still theft.

Go to your wiki link for theft of services and click on the word larceny, which is what these crimes are typically prosecuted as (says the Wiki page). In the larceny link, go to the Personal Property section. It reads "This limitation means that acts of common law larceny cannot be committed against the following:" and it then goes on to name "intellectual property".

 

yes, and at the bottom of the list there is this

Note: All states have enacted statutes to expand the coverage of larceny to include the items mentioned above.

also, theft of services can be charged under misdeamener and felony charges.  Which would cover those as well.  

edit:  the fact the states expanded larceny to cover that just means they understanding that terms need to be upgraded to fit with current day crimes.  Like I said before, we can't be beholden to archaic definitions of terms.  

You've still yet to show me how it's theft. Now you seem to be going on how law makers need to change the laws to shoe horn it in for today's society, but that doesn't make it theft at the moment, which is my point.

I've read up on quite a few trials, involving the RIAA, Pirate Bay, profiting off of modding consoles and selling pirated software, and they're all tried the same way...under copyright infringement, not theft.

ok Onyx, lets look at my first post, shall we?  

what I said, first line, "I don't agree at all, theft is a very proper metaphor and is correctly used."  notice how I establish theft is a proper metaphor?  and then I go into my analogy about how dog walker not getting paid is theft.  

You then respond and tell me that my analogy is ridiculous and then liken it to somebody else saying stealing a life as if they were the same thing.  Which is, of course, not at all the same thing.  Of which, I went ahead and proved that not paying for a service is considered theft.  

So lets get down to it and finish this because it is late and you just seem to be picking at everything I say instead of conceding anything.  I will concede that piracy is not "theft" in legal terms, but law makers using the term theft metaphorically is perfectly legit and I stand by that.

Now, will you concede that my analogy was in fact a legit analogy.  That the stealing of a service is the same as stealing a tangible object?  That my original post was justified and you were wrong in your response?

I'll concede that theft of a service is a good metaphor for theft of a tangible object, but I don't feel piracy is either of the two. The tangible object is the retail copy of the videogame and the service would be not paying for the development of the game, which is the employer's issue. The reason any metaphor needs to be used at all is because piracy is relatively new and people don't understand it yet. We've become so accustomed to our regular crimes that they don't need metaphors. We understand what theft is, murder is, etc. but since we don't as a society understand what piracy is, it must have a comparison point. Unfortunately, it's true comparison point, copyright infringement is not any more known to the masses.

So I'm not going to concede that theft is a good comparison point, because it's not. If it were, piracy would be tried like larceny is, but it isn't.

@Slimebeast-I don't see why we can't simply call it piracy. I always felt that was the layman's term for what is actually copyright infringement. Calling it theft is labeling it something it just isn't.

I feel it can be used as a slang term, in the same manner as anything can be stolen. Examples being "You stole my heart", "You stole her life", "You stole my innocence you filthy rapist", etc. These are all phrases to show something either tangible or not that was seemingly owned by someone was taken by another, but it's used as a phrase not to be taken literally. That's how I feel piracy can be called stealing, in that manner. I don't feel it should be called it in a manner where people say it's just like taking something from a store. That just isn't true, and that's how it gets misconstrued by many.