Re:Stealing Is a Skill
by anonyfox on Wednesday June 24, 2026 @10:51AM
(#48660853)
the very point is that theft means you no longer have something since someone else has. copying is you still have it and someone else now too. there is no harm done by copying, except you actually believe that exclusivity as a separate concept is important to you. (debatable, I don't).
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why not? I'm curious what you define as "property". Does property have to be physical?
For example if you felt your body and your mind was your property, if someone else copied your mind and was now profiting off of that without your consent, would you not feel that harmful to you?
If someone generated AI porn of me I'd certainly feel violated, among other things, but it's not stealing the same way as stealing my car so I can't get to work is. So it's not stealing, we need a different word. copyright infringement doesn't roll off the tongue though. 盗版 "doh baan" is Cantonese for pirated software/media. The original isn't easy to type, but daoban is.
Daoban might not ever enter western lexicon the same way tsunami or kowtow has, but stealing is just the wrong word to use.
Which words are you proposing work better for the scenarios in this article?