copyright

One of the most common arguments seen on geek-news discussion forum Slashdot is over the distinction between copyright infringement and theft. Theft, of course, requires depriving someone of something, which is why we have copyright law in the USA and internationally. One of the tools used for this purpose is the repurposing (or "railroading", if you will) of the word "piracy" to apply both to persons who take naval vessels by force of arms and to infringers of copyright. I propose that we stop supporting this deliberate and misleading act by refusing to repeat the terms being used to demonize copyright infringers, and instead using terms that actually mean something.