Quote:
Originally Posted by MrB
theft
the action or crime of stealing
steal
take (another person’s property) without permission or legal right and without intending to return it
property
a thing or things belonging to someone
intellectual property
Intangible property that is the result of creativity, such as patents, copyrights, etc.
So, intellectual property is considered property, the taking of which without permission is considered stealing, the act of which is considered theft.
Seems to work.
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"Corporations are people too, my friend."
The difference in this case is that, legally-speaking, Mitt Romney was quite correct, because under US law, corporations have the same rights as people, as disgusting as that law is.
In your example, you're entirely incorrect. Theft is defined as the act of depriving somebody of a tangible possession. Intellectual "property" is not defined as a form of property of which you can be deprived, and the law does not view IP in that way.
A judge will not accept the claim that "My IP was stolen" because you cannot steal IP, you can only copy it, and that makes it a copyright infringement if the copyright holder did not grant permission to copy, or did not relinquish copyright.
It doesn't matter if that makes you angry. What matters is the law. The law quite rightly views copyright and IP as being something that cannot be stolen, only copied without permission of the owner.
Here's an example I used elsewhere:
If somebody takes your bike without your permission, the act is legally defined as theft, because you have been deprived of your property, namely the bike.
If somebody creates an exact duplicate of your bike - a perfect copy in every detail - and rides it around they have not stolen your bike. You still have it, you've not been deprived of any property.
Even if you designed and built your bike, it's not theft. If you have a patent on it, or copyright of the colours and markings, etc, and you did not give the person permission to reproduce it, then it's a case of patent and copyright infringement.
You have your bike. He has a copy of your bike. It is not stealing, theft, or "piracy"
as clearly defined by current and existing law.