You have an actual loss in that scenario, but in the case of digital piracy most people wouldn’t have bought it anyway. Hence, no lost sales.
Comment on [Louis Rossmann] Is All Piracy Equal? Exploring Gray Areas: When Is It REALLY "Stealing" ??
Fizz@lemmy.nz 7 months agoHow do you figure that it’s not stealing? The way I see the word stealing used it seems that piracy would fit under that definition. There is plenty of times we would say someone stole something that isn’t physical. Example of someone has an idea and they tell me and I go and take that idea to market before them they would say I stole it even though they still have their idea.
randomname01@feddit.nl 7 months ago
Fizz@lemmy.nz 7 months ago
You can’t make the claim that most people who pirated wouldn’t have brought anyway. Also if most people wouldn’t have brought then you still can’t claim no lost sales because most isn’t all.
gregorum@lemm.ee 7 months ago
if that “idea” was patented or trademarked, or if the original creator can prove “first use” in court, theyw ould have a viable civil case for IP infringement under the DMCA (in the US, or under similar laws in other jurisdictions). again, however, this is not “theft” by any legal definition, but a form of copyright infringement as defined by the law. Nothing was taken or stolen (the creator still possesses the original), but, rather, copied and then illegally profited from.