[LINK] Theft, copyright, larceny...

[Stewart Fist]

Brendan writes
> 
> Can you point us to the accounts which list the value of a person's copyright
> infringed as a loss?  I assume you can't because the accountants and tax pple
> don't let these amounts be listed as a loss.  Perhaps that's because they
> don't think it is a loss.

So now we are moving from only allowing the use of words like 'theft' and
'piracy' in the way they are defined by the legislation .. to only being
allowed to use word like 'loss' in the way they are defined by the taxation
department.

> The argument is not about the quantum. If it is theft it is theft even if the
thing stolen is only worth $0.01 or even less.

I assume you've never "borrowed' a biro from your workplace, or placed a
private phone-call while at work without sending 20 cents to your boss for
compensation.

> This is rather beside the point.  He may be a very naughty person and deserve
> to be punished, but that doesn't, by itself at least, make him a thief.

What makes him a thief is his appropriation of something of value belonging
to someone else, to which he had no rights.

The type of thievery might have had other names as well.

If he had only stolen a biro from his place of work, it would have been
called "conversion" -- but it would still have been theft

If he had used the company yacht for his own purposes, hiring it out to
others for Xmas parties, it would also have been 'conversion' -- and it
would still have been theft.

If as a bank-teller, he had changed the numbers on his own bank account,
that would have been called "fraud" and still have been theft.

If as a bankrobber he had held up a bank, that would have been called an
"armed hold up" and still have been theft

And it he had stolen someone's copyright, it would have been called a
"copyright infringement" and still have been theft.


That's why the constant refusal to recognise that these are all forms of
theft makes this nothing more than an argument about the use of legalistic
euphemisms. 

It's an attempt to make out that "my favourite type of theft" is not as
serious as other peoples type of theft.


-- 
Stewart Fist, writer, journalist, film-maker
70 Middle Harbour Road, LINDFIELD, 2070, NSW, Australia
Ph +61 (2) 9416 7458