Katilian said:
I'll stop arguing on morals because I think we are just going to have to agree to disagree (as someone with a major in philosophy, I left uni with many unresolved arguments The better synonym I would use is Copyright Infringement. If we look up a definition of piracy, we get "the unauthorized reproduction or use of a copyrighted book, recording, television program, patented invention, trademarked product, etc.". As I commented to Millennium, unauthorised reproduction is more than just "taking something that doesn't belong to you". Unauthorised backups and transcoding can also be piracy (I believe these are ok in the US, but they aren't here in Australia), yet I think most people would have a hard time arguing that making a copy for personal use, of something you have already paid to obtain, is still the same as stealling. Ignoring the definitions and looking in the moral realm, do you think that making a backup copy is as wrong as making a copy of something you don't own at all? I agree that words can have broad definitions, but I don't think that the defintions of piracy and stealing overlap enough to make them synonymous. |
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"copyright infringment" is not a lay-mans term. Pretend you are going to describe piracy to an immigrant from the third world. He wouldn't understand if you say 'copying games is wrong because it's copyright infringment'. I prefer 'copying games is wrong because its a form of theft'.
I didn't mean exactly a synonym, but something in the same ball-park (sorry, my English is rotten).
