Is Copying the Same as Theft?

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Honest Questions From a Simple Man.


We continue the debateregarding the heading 'When is Theft Not Really Stealing' from last week. Ifyou missed it, you might want to start there. Here's the link: http://stuartaken.blogspot.com/2012/03/when-is-theft-not-really-stealing.html
Theo: Last time, we established that there's ageneral public attitude about petty theft from the place of work that considers suchthings as the taking of small items of stationery, chatting around the watercooler in work time and printing stuff for charities as not really stealing,you agree?
Dave: Yeah. And we said the bosses do it as well, whenthey have meetings on the golf course or travel Business Class to conferences,when they could just as easy meet on video conference.
Theo: So, there's a generally accepted feeling thatpetty theft is simply a part of everyday life in which most people participate?
Dave: Everyone does it.
Theo: Does this extend to such things, I wonder, as borrowinga book from a friend and never returning it?
Dave: That's not fair, but I don't think most peoplewould think of it as theft. I mean, it's usually just because they've forgotten,isn't it?
Theo: How do we feel about copying a music trackfrom a friend's CD so we can play it in our car?Dave: Happens all the time.
Theo: No doubt. But is it theft?
Dave: How would it be theft? I mean, the guy whoowns the CD can copy it legally so he can have a copy in the car and one at home,can't he?
Theo: That's actually not quite as straightforward,legally, as you might think. But forget that for the moment. The point aboutthe guy with the CD is that he's already paid the artist by buying the CD. Hisfriend, however, has made no contribution to the artist, has he?
Dave: I suppose not. But he might decide to buy thewhole CD once he's listened to the track, so the artist gets a new fan.  
Theo: On the other hand, he might not. And if hecopies the whole CD from his friend's?
Dave: Same goes. He might decide he'll buy the nextCD the artist brings out. So, the artist gains.
Theo: Or not, of course. It's a bit tenuous, thoughisn't it? Justifying this activity on the grounds that it might result infuture payment to the artist? There'll be those who decide never to buyanything from that particular artist but still retain the original copied CD.
Dave: Yeah, well, that's the way things are, isn'tit? Any case; look at the sort of money pop stars make. They're not going to missone or two sales, are they?
Theo: So, what makes it okay to steal income frompop stars is the fact that they're already wealthy from performing? Supposethis particular artist is just emerging, has produced the CD at his or her owncost, whilst working nights as a supermarket shelf-filler?
Dave: Well, no, you wouldn't want to do that fromsomeone just starting out, would you?
Theo: Selective theft, then. Interesting idea. Letme ask you, would you go into a shop and steal a CD off the shelf?
Dave: Jeez! 'Course not. That's shop-lifting.
Theo: But it's okay to do exactly the same thing bycopying material without paying for it?
Dave: Not the same. If you shop-lift, you're takingfrom the shop keeper as well. He's already paid for it and you've robbed him ofhis costs, haven't you?
Theo: Since the legal purchase of the item wouldalso involve the retailer, the only actual difference I see is that the shopkeeper hasn't, in that case, lost his expenditure but merely the opportunity ofthe profit, which is the part of the transaction that keeps him and his familyalive.
Dave: Record companies should make their CDscheaper, then people wouldn't be tempted to copy them, would they?
Theo: So, it's the fault of the supplier? You thinkit's the cost of the item that makes theft justified? Champagne's ridiculously expensivefor what it is; is it okay to steal that as well? At what point would the theftbecome wrong?
Dave: What do you mean?
Theo: Well, say for example, that the item was soldfor £10.00 ($15.68) for, say, 12 tracks? Is that too much to pay?
Dave: It's a lot.
Theo: So, how much would be not too much?
Dave: Hard to say. But I guess I'd pay, say, £6.00($9.41).
Theo: And £0.50 ($0.78) per track would stop youcopying in the future, would it?
Dave: Probably.
Theo: Theft, then, isn't an absolute but a qualitydependent on certain personal judgements about the worth of the object and the deservingnature, or otherwise, of the creating bodies?
Dave: Jeez, you do like to complicate things, don'tyou?
Theo: Sorry, Dave, I thought I was clarifying them. You feel it's okay to steal providing the person ororganisation you steal from can afford it? That seems to be what you're sayingand I simply want to make sure I understand you correctly.
Dave: Well, yeah, except I wouldn't call it theft.
Theo: What would you call it?
Dave: Dunno.
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Please let me have your comments and observations.By the way, apologies for the delay this week: I've been a bit under theweather.
Next time, we'll move on to the next part of thedebate, especially as it pertains to written material, which is, after all,what most readers of this blog are involved with.