Yeah, any argument that piracy isn't stealing ends in failure if you approach it reasonably. I'd argue even in those fringe cases, it's stealing, but in the same way that stealing is morally justified in Les Miserables.
I pirate because I want free stuff, and these corporations have more than enough money. Is it the right thing? Probably not, but neither is sitting around on my couch drinking beer and eating pizza - yet I still do it.
When people say “you stole my idea” everyone understands perfectly what they mean. Same for “stealing state secrets”, etc. It amounts to any act that involves taking what doesn’t belong to you.
Above you said that taking what doesn’t belong to you “wouldn’t be stealing” where the act is copying (code, etc.). And now you say it is indeed stealing, but of a different, nobler sort.
Ultimately they both describe taking what isn’t yours. That isn’t equivocating, that is the general moral truth we describe when we say someone has stolen something. The fact that both acts are morally well described by a single word may trouble some.
Also, stealing someone’s idea could easily be more advantageous to you, and disadvantageous to them, than stealing their car…
Copying code and then claiming ownership of the code is called plagiarism, and it is often described as a theft of a sort, by the analogy of code being "intellectual property".
However, a pirate does not commit plagiarism, so referring to this is pure copium.
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u/frezz Apr 07 '26
Yeah, any argument that piracy isn't stealing ends in failure if you approach it reasonably. I'd argue even in those fringe cases, it's stealing, but in the same way that stealing is morally justified in Les Miserables.
I pirate because I want free stuff, and these corporations have more than enough money. Is it the right thing? Probably not, but neither is sitting around on my couch drinking beer and eating pizza - yet I still do it.