Let's say I work a full day with the understanding that I will get paid for my efforts. The employer then refuses to pay me. It would not be uncommon for someone to say that the employer 'stole' from you, or call them a 'thief'.
I could also see how many people would equate that to downloading a copy of something that required effort to produce and was being offered under specific terms.
I could see how arguing about the verbage, to most people, is just an exercise in pedantry and (as far as they are concerned) misses the point.
Since you cannot get your lost time back, it certainly is theft (of services).
However, that is not the case at all with digital copying, where the original owner of the data is not deprived of anything. That is the real point - the idea of property is inextricably related to scarcity, which doesn't exist in the digital realm.
Scarcity does exist in the digital realm - only on the production side. Distribution is effectively free.
Until dev/random spits out complete programs that are worth using, it needs to be taken into account that all software requires effort to produce, and giving the author(s) the ability to dictate the terms of the software use is often the only reason certain software gets made.
Let's say I work a full day with the understanding that I will get paid for my efforts. The employer then refuses to pay me. It would not be uncommon for someone to say that the employer 'stole' from you, or call them a 'thief'.
I could also see how many people would equate that to downloading a copy of something that required effort to produce and was being offered under specific terms.
I could see how arguing about the verbage, to most people, is just an exercise in pedantry and (as far as they are concerned) misses the point.