No kidding. Just because there is a correlation between P2P file sharing and CD purchasing does not mean the former causes the latter. Rather, they are likely driven by common factors, i.e. the reduced form demand functions likely share several factors in common (i.e. a popular song will likely be purchased more as well as shared more). I would venture a guess that file sharing costs artists more sales than sampling generates – though admittedly, this hypothesis is based on personal experience on college campuses, not hard data.

Additionally, while you address music only, you ignore the fact that file sharing has significant implications for other intellectual property goods as well. In the case of books or films, there are far smaller positive effects from sampling, and in the case of the latter, much larger budgets to recoup (one song versus one film).

1. Did you read Joan’s quote? I don’t think she was suggesting that unauthorized file sharing of copyright music is like going into a clothing store and “appropriating the clothes without right or acknowledgement.”

2. I’d used theft and tealing interchangeably. What do theives do? They steal things. What’s the difference between theft and stealing? Theft is what’s normally meant by stealing, and clearly what Joan meant by describing an example of shoplifting. I’d be happy to replace the word theft with stealing or shoplifting throughout the post, because it makes no difference in the way Joan is using it.

On Wikipedia, the article on stealing redirects to theft. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stealing

Princeton does the same thing, defining theft as stealing: http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=stealing

Theft is what’s usually meant by stealing, certainly if we’re talking about shoplifting.

If Joan meant stealing in the sense of appropriating the ideas or concepts of clothes, that would mean ripping off the design, copying the fashions, but not walking out of Winners with a sweater you didn’t pay for.

ps It’s not very hard to refute the “NO DIFFERENCE” claim. If I copy a file from your website without you permission, do you still have it? If I steal a CD from your merch table, do you still have it? I’m not saying copyright infringement isn’t wrong, but it’s not the least bit productive or useful to pretend that it’s the same thing as stealing a coat or a sweater. It’s a weak and problematic analogy at best.

One can most certainly STEAL non-tangible things:

steal

1. to take (the property of another or others) without permission or right, especially secretly or by force: A pickpocket stole his watch.

2. to appropriate (ideas, credit, words, etc.) without right or acknowledgment.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/steal

Conclusion: there is NO DIFFERENCE between unauthorized file copying and STEALING.

Call it “unauthorized file sharing” or “illegal file sharing,” I don’t care for the purposes of this post. You can take that sentence and make it: “The claim that there is “absolutely no difference” between illegal copying of a digital audio file and the theft of a physical good is flawed right at the core…”

Don’t you see? Of course copyright infringement is illegal! (I also wrote “the act of file sharing is… wrong insofar as it is unauthorized or illegal.”) Both copyright infringement and theft are unauthorized and illegal. I am making no distinction between unauthorized or illegal but using them as synonyms here.

Is that really so hard to understand?

The comparison is between larceny and copyright infringement, which are two entirely separate areas of law. They are not related at all. Find me the words “theft”, “stealing” or “larcency” in the Copyright Act.

To be absolutely clear and avoid any further reading comprehension problems:

1. Copyright infringement is illegal;
2. Theft is illegal;
3. But theft is not copyright infringement; they are two separate things.

When did I say theft isn’t illegal?! *sigh*

“The claim that there is “absolutely no difference” between unauthorized copying of a digital audio file and the theft of a physical good is flawed right at the core. There is one very important difference. When you copy a file, you do not deprive the owner of their copy. When you take a physical item from someone, that someone no longer has that item in their possession.”

You:
Umm… where did I say there’s a difference between unauthorized and illegal? I mean, I guess there is, but I’m not talking about that at all.

This is you being stupid and I refuse to even continue debating with a moron who can’t understand theft is illegal.

Umm… where did I say there’s a difference between unauthorized and illegal? I mean, I guess there is, but I’m not talking about that at all.

I’m talking about the different between copyright infringement and theft. Both are illegal, but they are two clearly distinct things, by definition, ethically, legally, conceptually, technically, etc…

I don’t really care about the difference between unauthorized and illegal here. I’m talking about the difference between copyright infringement and larceny.

copying is depriving a sale for the artist or the creator.

That’s not true. It may be sometimes, but there are lots of instances where unauthorized downloading is not in place of a sale, such as the sampling of new music. Furthermore, the latest Industry Canada study on the subject finds “a strong positive relationship between P2P file sharing and CD purchasing.”

just because the method is one step removed doesn’t deny that fact.

This has nothing to do with being “one step removed.” Did you read the post?