this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2026
657 points (99.7% liked)
Technology
87575 readers
3622 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
If buying isn't owning, then piracy isn't stealing.
What is piracy then?
It’s definitely stealing. I don’t understand why people on here can’t admit it to themselves.
My guess is people here think that stealing is wrong, no matter what. They also think that piracy is moral. Because of that, they incorrectly deduce that piracy isn’t stealing.
Look up any definition of stealing, and it always boils down to: taking something that you don’t have permission to take.
No, this isn’t limited to physical items. Companies steal our data all the time.
I think people need to shift from “Piracy isn’t stealing” to “Fuck the corps, they don’t wanna play fair I’ll steal their shit and they won’t see a penny”
It's definitely denying money to someone who is asking to be paid.
But since they, nor anyone else is affected by the copying activity I don't think it can be called stealing.
How about
You can make up definitions all you want, it’s still stealing.
Piracy doesn't fit the definition of stealing, because the owners still have the property.
That’s literally wrong. If I stole all your personal data from your laptop, you’d still have it.
Companies steal trade secrets from each other all the time. That doesn’t mean the knowledge just leaves the other company.
Stop making up definitions and just accept that it’s stealing. Just because it’s stealing doesn’t make it wrong.
If you copied all my personal data from my laptop, I'd still have it.
If you stole it I wouldn't.
If you copy a secret then it is no longer a secret, so something has changed for the original owner.
You are the one changing the definition of stealing to try and apply it to piracy.
stealing /ˈstiːlɪŋ/ noun
the action or offence of taking another person's property without permission or legal right and without intending to return it; theft.
We are just going to have to disagree then. If you don’t think non-physical items can be stolen then this conversation is pointless.
Oh yes. Non-physical items can be XXXX.
We are just disagreeing on the word, not the action. I don't believe traditional words (like stolen) are 100% transferable to the digital world.