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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BryonD" data-source="post: 1558256" data-attributes="member: 957">No. It is NOT.It is a bad thing that is different than theft.  That is why it is called infringement and not theft. It is considered a bad thing in the eyes of the law and the punishments are frequently based on equilvalences to actual theft of property values the same as the claimed value of the IP.If you can't follow that then we get into the you don't get it round and round that gets real boring real fast.SIGHAgain, because they commited copyright infrigment.  Showing me that someone got in a LOT of trouble for doing the bad thing called copyright infringement does not provide a single DROP of evidence that copyright infringement is theft.  Just that it is against the law and they will punish you for it.Honestly, if you are paying attention to the point I am making I can not see why you would even waste time typing that out because it does not even REMOTELY address the matter I am speaking to.I already said that.Agreed.  But we do agree that making a copy of IP that I have purchased IS legal as long as I don't cross the "and" part of your stated definition.If I make 1000 copies of a CD and store tham in a box because I am a paranoid freak it is still legal.  Same if I scanned my copy of War and Peace or Complete Divine.  If I steal $10 from you and get away with it, all you need is good enough accounting to know that you were stolen from.  If I infringe against a $10 IP of yours one time and get away with it, you will never know.Does that make it a lesser crime?  That is a philisophical question.  In my opinion, no.  It is no less of a crime.  If I steal $1,000,000 from someone and get away with it, they will likely be financially destroyed.  If I distribute 100,000 copies of your $10 IP, then you will NOT be financially destroyed.  You can claim that you potential to realize earned value from your IP has been destroyed.  And you will be correct.  But the extent is unknown.  If you do catch me and prove it, then you can have me punished for $1,000,000 worth of infringement.  That is fine, because that is what I did.  Would I deserve the same penalty as if I actually stolen $1,000,000.  I dunno.  I don't much care, I won't waste time feeling sorry for criminals whether they are infringers or thieves.The point being that both theft and infrigment have a negative financial impact on the victim.  And in both cases the criminal should be punished.  But the nature and objective, measureable magnitude of the impact on the victim are very different in the two cases.  Because the two actions are different things.</blockquote>

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