[mdavidn]

"Stole" isn't the right word either. Pirating does not deprive any legal entity of ownership. It's merely copyright infringement. It also likely circumvented access controls, thereby running afoul of DMCA. But it is not theft.

I'm speaking as someone who also never pirates. I'd rather not watch something and spend my time doing something else.

[Daz1]

It is absolutely theft, nobody is falling for that semantics argument - you're depriving a rights holder of revenue that they would otherwise gained.

[vonjuice]

My pockets are absolutely overflowing with revenue big corpo would otherwise have gained, it's ruining my pants!

Do you know where I could stash all this revenue big corpo would otherwise have gained? Or perhaps I could give it to you? Would you be interested in giving me something in exchange for all this revenue big daddy corpo would otherwise have gained?

[DarkUranium]

Reminds me of the Napster case, where the damages were calculated as higher as the gross world product at the time because of the "1 pirated copy = 1 lost sale" philosophy.

Implying that music companies would have been richer than all the nations + other companies in the world combined, if it wasn't for music piracy. It's not hard to see how that's bull.

[realusername]

> you're depriving a rights holder of revenue that they would otherwise gained.

There's never been a single proof of a loss of revenue during research.

So no, while it's usually a talking point on the anti-piracy ads, it's an urban legend.

[worksonmine]

If I wasn't pirating I would most likely have at least one service.

I'm stealing just as much as I would be stealing if I took code from a developer without paying what we agreed to. The entire stealing/not stealing discussion is just useless semantics.

[scaryclam]

The inverse has also been suggested over the years: people who pirated at some point are more likely to pay for content now, whether or not they continue to pirate content

[t0bia_s]

"If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing"

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/08/playstationed/#tyler-jame...

[cvalka]

No, it's absolutely not theft and courts agree.

[DarkUranium]

Also, making a backup copy of something you own is usually piracy[1]. In what universe is that theft?

[1] The act of making a backup is not in and of itself (as it's considered a fair use/exception in most [not all!] jurisdictions, even outside of US), but it often involves circumventing DRM, and that part is piracy.