tepples's Journal: Yes, Copyright Infringement Is Theft.

At least in Indiana.

In the United States, federal law defines "copyright infringement" in Title 17, United States Code, and state law defines "theft". For example, in the State of Indiana, Indiana Code 35-43-4 defines the crime of "theft" as "knowingly or intentionally exert[ing] unauthorized control over property of another person, with intent to deprive the other person of any part of its value or use". In turn:

a person's control over property of another person is "unauthorized" if it is exerted: [...] by transferring or reproducing:

• (A) recorded sounds; or
• (B) a live performance;

without consent of the owner of the master recording or the live performance, with intent to distribute the reproductions for a profit."

So yes, even pedants should recognize that some copyright infringements are considered theft. If you can come up with analogous laws in other U.S. states, please post the details in comments.

It does say for a profit though.

[Crasoum]

And most file sharing via Bittorrent, Kazaa, Edonkey ect is not done for profit.

Now if you sell the OGG, MP3, WAV, *insert sound/video/what not here* for more then the cost of the medium, you have a point.

Interesting none the less; I'm from Indiana Myself.

Re:It does say for a profit though.

[lukewarmfusion]

It would be sketchy, but you might argue that a person is profiting by saving money they would have spent to purchase it. It's the same as the argument about whether the artist loses money or not; maybe they aren't losing the money, but they aren't getting money that should be coming to them.

I'm also in Indiana. We have a client that wanted to put a recording on their website without permission of the copyright holder. The point was to generate ticket sales because they would be performing the same piece.

not quite

[slothman32]

Legally perhaps but physically no. I don't think of it as theft unless the "owner" loses something when I gain.