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[downs]

John Reimer wrote:
> Yes, that philosophy of taking before it's given does pervade some cultures
> (in some places, it used to be called "stealing")... such redefinition
> of "liberty" does little good to encourage good workmanship.

And such redefinition of "stealing" does little to help your point
in my eyes. I can actually sympathize with the Tango team; nobody likes having
his copyright infringed. But that's all that it is, infringement, and every
time you call it stealing a little part of the English language withers and dies.

Stealing is defined as taking something without its owner's consent. The point
of this is that after it was taken, the original owner *doesn't have it any more*.

Copyright infringement is the copying of something without the copyright holder's
consent, the difference being that the copyright holder doesn't lose it.

So it's not stealing.

The Copyright Lobby would very much like to redefine copyright infringement as
stealing, because, well, "copyright infringement" doesn't sound very criminal
and "pirates" actually sounds cool :)

But that's purely a PR tactic - copyright infringement has, and never had,
anything to do with "stealing".

People have argued that every time you infringe the copyright of a commercial
product, you "steal" a sale from the copyright holders.

I put "steal" in quotes because it is very much in question if you can steal an
immaterial concept that hasn't even occured yet.

Nothing wrong with arguing against copyright infringement, but please call it
by its proper name.

 --downs