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Re: Are 'warez' really theft?
When it comes to Games the situation is a little different I think as the downloaders fall into two distinct groups.
The first are those who never do and never will pay if they can avoid it. They are stealing under the original deffinition "with intent to permanently deprive".
The second group are kids trying out the game before they buy and many do then go out and buy the original not just for the on-line stuff but also because they want to own the original game complete with packaging etc. This hardly meets the usual deffinition of theft.
In fact this situation mirrors a lot of what happens with Movie downloading too. If people like the movie they will most often actually go to see it at a cinema as well as downloading a copy.
The Movie industry themselves have adopted a more philosophical approach to the problem by accepting that at least in part the download activity actually acts as free promotion. (The download files are not theft but just very very long trailers for the movie) LOL
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