Topics Ethics

Question Is internet piracy "theft"? This is a frequent point of debate, with one side saying yes, because the pirate is gaining access to something they didn't pay for, and the other side saying no, because the pirate isn't taking anything away from somebody else (i.e. nobody has less of anything than they had before the piracy). I'm not asking whether internet piracy is harmful, I'm asking whether it belongs to the category "theft" (as opposed to copyright violation, for instance).

Accepted:
February 29, 2012

Comments

First of all, copyright violation surely is theft. It harms the author since he or she is not paid for the work. With internet piracy it is not a question of money, perhaps, but identification of who is using the service. Since the person paying for the service will be identified with the internet addresses visited by the interloper, and this might be disadvantageous, it could be said to constitute theft of his or her good name. This could have financial consequences.

I think the harm issue and the financial consequences issue are jointly significant here. It is not like my enjoying the smell of your soup which costs me nothing but costs you nothing also. It is rather like my sticking my nose into your soup and preventing you from enjoying it in the space to which you are entitled by your ownership of it. Of course, you do not know it is done so it is more of a virtual nose than a real nose, but the consequences can be serious, and so morally this is questionable behavior.