[LINK] A Definition Of Piracy In The Digital Age

[Lea de Groot]

On 06/02/2009, at 4:19 PM, Craig Sanders wrote:

> nope. piracy is an act of theft involving the illegal seizure of a  
> ship,
> boat or other form of aquatic transport. it often involves violence
> and/or murder.

Agreed.
Nonetheless, there has arisen a neologism spelt 'piracy' - possibly  
mostly propounded by the large vested interests, namely record  
companies and the like, but happily taken up by the common people - to  
use the word to refer to people who don't abide by their terms of  
service in using the content they produce or distribute.
Language is in the use, not in the textbook :)

If you have another concise word that describes the action above, I'll  
be happy to consider it, but I was just answering the question asked :)

> you really ought to be careful how you use the term 'piracy' or
> 'pirate'. IIRC, in the 80s somebody here in .au was successfully  
> charged
> with copyright infringement of software, and was gloatingly referred
> to as a pirate by a rep of the company who initiated the charges. he
> successfully sued for defamation for the damage to his reputation from
> the inappropriate and inaccurate representation of him as a pirate.

I think that was the 80s and the term has entered common parlance  
enough that no judge would now agree with that finding.

IMHO
Lea