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?

Just wanted to comment on that. File sharing is legal in Canada. File sharing is not innately designed to pirate software/music/etc, it is a means of effectively communicating/transfering data, much like HTTP, FTP, email, etc. It merely does it in a way that large amounts of data can be effectively distributed without putting strain on any one host.

For example, Linux distributions, many public domain sites, Blizzard (makers of Warcraft) all use file sharing/p2p legitimately