[ColMustard]

No. Adulthood has nothing to do with the fact that everyone is using a word that doesn't accurately describe the action taken.

Just because it's not stealing doesn't mean it's not illegal. You can't call anything that's illegal "stealing". It's piracy, which is illegal, but a different act than stealing.

People who started calling piracy stealing are the same people that cannot accurately understand what is actually happening, and people who benefit from calling it stealing instead of correctly portraiting it as it's own crime.

The desensitized image of piracy that people have is somewhat close to the way some people have a desensitized image of credit card fraud. The image that you're hurting a faceless corporation, and not an actual person. Introducing the moral part in an action that doesn't accurately portray a victim is the hard part. When stealing it's easy because you can relate and imagine the victim of an action.

[JonWood]

I love that you have a problem with people calling copyright infringement "stealing", but no qualms at all about calling it "piracy" instead, which is an entirely different affair.

Certainly the last time I downloaded a TV program I did using BitTorrent, rather than boarding the content producer's boat and taking it with force.

[Karunamon]

>I love that you have a problem with people calling copyright infringement "stealing", but no qualms at all about calling it "piracy" instead, which is an entirely different affair.

Pirate, verb, sense 3:

  The unauthorized use or reproduction of another's work     - to pirate software

Steal, from the dictionary, first and only sense as a verb:

  Take (another person's property) without permission or legal right and without intending to return it: "thieves stole her bicycle".

This is not that difficult to understand.

[ColMustard]

You are aware that the definition of piracy and pirating has been changed since the 1600's I hope?

Here's a link: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/piracy