"Allow none of foo, one of foo or any number of foo" Showing posts tagged with: usa

“It’s smash and grab, no different than a guy walking down Fifth Avenue and smashing the window at Tiffany’s and reaching in and grabbing what’s in the window,” Biden said, referring to the jewelry store in New York City. (link)

Actually by giving this example he explains why it is not theft… the irony :)

In theft, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. Which store is robbed and for what amount? In other words, what is the economically demonstrable harm/damage, and what is the crime scene?
    
2. How was the window which was smashed? In other words, what is the physical damage?
    
3. What has been grabbed and is gone? In other words what has been “physically” gone?

Let’s answer this with the example of piracy download:

1. There is no demonstrable economic damage. A download is not a lost sale. On the contrary, even according to some other studies it stimulates a sale. And even if we (wrongly) assume it is a missed sale, there is no identifiable financial harm. Or should every retailer demand a compensation for each advertisement that I decide not to buy?
2. There is absolutely no physical damage
    
3. There are absolutely no missing cases/items, which is a basic requirement for theft.