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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 2722930" data-attributes="member: 19675">True...but that is part of the nature of a purely electronic good- you can steal it without depriving the original creator of posession.There are VERY FEW goods that have that characteristic.But I'm not using the term "theft" without reason.  Violation of Copyright law by making unauthorized duplicates IS a subcategory of theft.(emphasis mine)The person or company who produced the .pdf has set a price for his IP; in order to obtain lawful control of that property, you must meet the IP producer's threshold of paying him that price.  When you download the .pdf without paying for it, you are exerting unauthorized control, aka Theft.You can look around- most of the first world nations (those that have the most to lose from IP piracy) will have a similar definition codified in their laws somewhere, but they aren't alone.And even if you go back to the old crime of larceny...While you cannot literally "carry away" purely electronic goods, you are still using it in a manner inconsistent with the IP producer's rights.But back to the modern world...If you photocopy my unpublished jewelry design plans and sell or even give them to someone else, you have definitely stolen from me, regardless of the fact that I still have my original copies.While I can probably still produce my piece of jewelry, I cannot sell that design to the person to whom you have sold/given it to.  Odds are good that I can't sell it to you, either.And if you sold that design to Zales, who subsequently beats me to the copyright office, I may not be able to do anything with my design.</blockquote>

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