QUOTE(Giano @ Mon 13th July 2009, 9:33am)
One could argue that this is a civil matter and not criminal, however, others would argue it was a theft of copyright, so was criminal. Whatever, this matter has serious implications, especially for those in the UK, and needs to be clarified.
Giano
It's worth pointing out that "theft", where "piracy" of intellectual property is concerned is a misnomer. It's not actually theft unless something has been physically removed from the possession of the owner (And, for that matter, it's not actually "piracy" unless the high seas are involved or something).
What has occurred here is a case of copyright infringement, which is almost certainly a civil matter. There might be other criminal issues concerning circumvention of the protection software, but AFAIK they wouldn't be considered theft (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Words like theft are evocative, but confusing - one of the irritating tactics of the RIAA, MPAA etc. is to try to conflate the two.
Of course, now I'm wondering how someone could actually steal a copyright.
IANAL, posting on interwebs, etc.
PS. This topic always reminds me of
this video.This post has been edited by Daxx: