Stealing is not the same as piracy. First of all there are the basic differences: - Stealing a CD involves taking a physical object that can't be sold anymore. So in effect you're actually making the seller worse off. - Downloading a song doesn't involve stealing a physical object, because the CD is still in the store. Second of all there's the thing with copyright protection. When you buy an MP3 player, a blank CD or any other device you can store things on, you're paying for something called "right to copy". This actually only applies to homemade copies, such as a back-up of one of your original CDs or DVDs. However, even though you have this right, record companies and publishers of almost every digital format are using severe copy protections. So in effect you're paying too much for blank CDs in order to have the right to copy, just to see that the big companies block the ability to make a backup for yourself. In my opinion the whole download scene serves them right. Same thing goes for DRM protection which is the biggest rip-off in human history. Brandon already made a good point but I'd like to go a little further. Let's say you want to buy a car. Will you buy one that has "protection limits" on it that tell you where you can go and where you can't? And when you go off limits the car will just shut down. How are you ever going to sell that to the consumer? That's the whole problem. The record labels are arrogant pricks who think they can just fool around with their consumers because they'll keep coming back anyway. Well not anymore. I don't just download because I like music and movies. I download for liberty and justice!

actually Huge companies , are applying a kind of " informational persecution" , they give you half-programs for "free" (it was included in the price of your pc) and be waiting for you when these useful and necessary programs don't run anymore , guess what it happens when you ask for the price!!! it will cost more than the pc you have..(try to see the cost of basic office tools, basic antiviruses ....). excuse my definition if i say it is a FRAUD i join Brandon and Harregarre's point of view

In principal, piracy deprives the owner of the intellectual property right to whatever it is you're pirating from receiving rightful compensation. However, I wouldn't go as far as saying it's stealing. When you download a song, the record label doesn't receive money from the download. However, when stealing a physical object a company actual loses money. Anyway, I pirate like crazy myself, and in my instances, it serves record labels right. Currently, the only way to get songs legally is to buy an overpriced CD that might have a good song and 10 subpar ones. Alternatively, you could download from an online store like iTunes, in which case the song would have DRM protection which limits the use of a song that you legally paid for.

Imagine you work hard and your boss doesn't pay you at the end. Or you sell something, another person stole it from you instead of buying from you... This is piracy. Individual action affects company and company action affects the nation...

Effects?? bankruptcy piracy is very common everywhere its an act of stealing something without asking a permission its like stealing a private property so stop piracy LOL..