2. Copying a CD cannot be qualified as theft. Whatever you call it - it is still not a theft.
Ok - I'm afraid I'm going to delurk here. This statement is WRONG. In most countries of the world there is a mechanism that bestows the properties of physical property on easily copyable material - its called copyright. It means that people can earn a living making stuff of this nature (music,books,software etc.). Although you are not physically stealing something you are still stealing "something" - someones work. Now as an artificial construct (as are money,credit cards,stock share etc. lest we forget how important these artificial constructs are to our societies) this doesn't always work intuitively. In fact I believe that in time it will be replaced by a more workable mechanism (although if the RIAA have their way it will be less workable). As someone whose entire output consists of stuff like this (software,music and poetry) I need to find a way to earn a living doing this kind of thing. I make software for a living - the direct consequence of your stance is that every piece of software I write becomes public domain as soon as a make it available in a copiable form. How would I earn a living doing it - and why should I do it if I can't earn a living from it (and perhaps more importantly when would I find time) There are many arguments about whether copying cd's is acceptable under some circumstances (see the rest of this thread) But under the laws of most of our societies we protect Intellectual Property (IP) - we can argue to change this - we can even ignore these laws but you are still breaking them. We need some version of this law otherwise musicians,writers,film makers and software developers are all wasting their time and will have to get other jobs. I for one would miss the vast output in these fields. cheers mark __________________________________ junklight http://www.junklight.com dark experimental electronics