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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Halivar" data-source="post: 4676271" data-attributes="member: 9327">A couple points.First, there are several civil cases where lawyers representing IP holders have been castigated for using the term "theft" in court to describe copyright infringement. In a court of law, the distinction is important. Then again, this is a web forum, not a courtroom.Second, despairing over the depravity of humanity over a web forum poll is a tad bit much, IMHO. Remember that the very concept of "intellectual property" is remarkably new, and even until ten years ago was typically an inside-the-industry thing only (indeed, court rulings on tape recording in the late seventies and early eighties reinforced the idea that end-consumers didn't have to worry about copyright laws). I was already a fully-formed adult when Napster came around, and, all of a sudden, consumers are also producers, and long-assumed rights became wrong. Right now, many people are still trying to wrap their head around what is actually legal or not, even aside from the ethics of it (because heretofore IP law was assumed to be for people who made money off of it). Again, I speak of the masses (like me), and not people better versed in the history of IP law.Regardless of where you stand on the issue, this much is clear: the concept of "fair use" has been shrinking by the decade. Have patience on people who are still trying to get used to the idea that things are suddenly wrong that ten years ago were considered perfectly fine.That said, don't break the law. And if you plan on breaking the law to protest your diminishing "fair use" rights as an act of civil disobedience, do it right and turn yourself in afterwords.EDIT: Relevant readings:Dowling vs. US (1985) - Holding that copyright infringement is separate and distinct from theft</blockquote>

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