Theft is a very forced metaphor for software piracy

[Slimebeast]

Katilian said:

Slimebeast said:

Piracy is not an adequate word for it because the traditional act of piracy is a horrible crime, more like armed robbery than theft.

Theft is a good word because that's what stealing a service essentially is. "copyright infringment" is not a lay-man's term and doesn't describe the moral wrongness of the act.

Let's say there's an amusement park, animal zoo or a castle that is a museum. Now, sometimes people can go trhough the open gates of these kind of facilities, but they're still supposed to pay (unless entrance to the facility indeed is free, but this is not up to the visitor to decide!). Same with lots of city buses, you can walk right onto them from the backdoor without paying. But if you get caught by a controller, you get punished and no one protests against that. Same with tax-evasion etc.

Now, what could all these morally wrong acts when people go in for free be described as? I think clearly they're forms of thievery.

Is piracy morally wrong? Except for on internet forums, I personally don't know anyone who is genuinely bothered by casual piracy. Most people have pirated something at some stage, and in my experience, most people under 30 use infringing media on a regular basis.

Given morals are based on social norms, why exactly is piracy immoral?

I already told you. Just like going to the Zoo for free without paying, riding the bus for free, parking your car for free, refusing to play your taxes - the act of copying software without paying is also a form of theft. And thievery is morally wrong, else it wouldnt be called thievery. Popular opinion can't overthrow that moral fact just because the common people gained a majority and think it's convenient to enjoy the work of hard working artists without paying their share. I pirate too, everyone I ever met pirate as well. I sometime park my car without paying and try to get away with it etc. But yet I think it's wrong.