[Permit]

I think the reason "steal" can feel strange here is that we've spent the last 15 years arguing that copyright infringement is "not stealing" because the original creator has not been deprived of anything.

The phrase "not stealing" is almost exclusively used in this context on HN: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

[koolhaas]

I think it’s context dependent, just like other uses of the word steal. With copyright infringement, internet communities have come to agreement that it is not stealing, so avoiding the use of the word in that context is important. In baseball it’s not, and neither with identity theft. With illegally obtained private photos, never intended to be shared or released to the world, is there a better word? It’s such a different scenario, the only similarity I see is both involve files on a computer.