this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2026
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Digital piracy had never been stealing, and framing it as such is a huge marketing success of IP holders. Stealing requires removal of property. Piracy duplicates. It is intellectual property violation, which is distinct from stealing.
Specifically “copyright infringement”; as in you infringed on the right of the owner to dictate how and when their copy is duplicated.
It sounds necessary but “I’m the only one allowed my idea” is such a problematic concept, especially in the Information Age, it’s amazing how it’s used for some of the most egregiously greedy things.
The penalties should honestly be almost nothing.
Copywrite like patents originally was a short period to give the creator time to capitalize on their work. It was meant to drive innovation but not stifle it with monopolization.
Then it was slowly changed from that to generational ownership and monopoly. Life plus 70 years is fucking stupid.
Thanks Disney!
Copyright.
And for training AI copyright suddenly does not matter? It's them who created copyright laws and now it's them who made them pointless in their greed.
It's not just "distinct from stealing", it's not even vaguely related to stealing.
Depriving someone of their property is the main thing that makes stealing wrong. If I steal your fishing pole, presumably you're not mad that I'm now able to fish. You're mad that you are not able to fish because you don't have a fishing pole anymore.
With intellectual property, the offence is now that I'm able to do something I wasn't previously able to do, even if you're still able to do what you did before. Now you can still fish, but I'm also able to fish, and the government told you that you had the right to determine who was able to fish, and I'm fishing without your permission, so I'm violating your rights.
There's a debate to be had about whether or not copyright, patents, trademarks, etc. are good for society. Maybe they are. Maybe they're only good if the copyright term is under 4 years, and if it's over 4 years it's bad for society. Maybe that threshold isn't 4 years but 4 centuries. The main thing is that you can't think about it the way you think about stealing.
"Stealing" has never meant exclusively "taking someone's property".
The amount of mental gymnastics people will do to justify to themselves something that is so incredibly minor and also wrong. Do you hold yourselves to such high standards that the English language must change before admitting you did something a bit naughty?
So I love this reply because it's emblematic of missing the point. I am not defending piracy with my original statement, at all. This is your own conclusion. Piracy is still (depending on the country) illegal and subject to punishment and enforcement. If you want to engage or not is entirely up to you, I'm not justifying anything. I am clarifying an important point. Where it matters is in the application of penalties and damages for the aggrieved.
You are "clarifying" incorrectly. Stealing does not mean removal of property. You making up a definition and basing some palid screed around that as a premise is not a point that I missed, it's a point you based on nonsense.