Digital Thievery

Digital Thievery

When was the last time you downloaded a song off of the internet? Had your friend email you that new hit from your favorite band? When was the last time you committed a theft punishable for tens of thousands of dollars? In the digital age, where information can be copied, uploaded and transferred across the globe in a matter of second, how do we define theft? With the advent of the internet, the definitive line that theft had drawn has now become blurred to the point of recognition. Theft is defined as “the dishonest taking of property belonging to another person with the intention of depriving the owner permanently of its possession”. No one would say that breaking into someone’s vehicle and driving away is not theft. The owner of the vehicle had his property taken with no likelihood that it would ever be returned to him. Now take for example, copying a song on your computer to a USB drive and giving it to your friend. What you have done is currently defined as theft punishable for fifty times the compensation required for grand theft auto. But the real question is, how do we define theft in the digital realm, where information and content is not removed and taken, but copied and shared? If the owner of a music file has it copied from them by a teenager, are they being deprived of their property permanently? I would argue that in the digital realm, theft deserves a different definition, a more modern definition.

The last twenty years have been a tumultuous time for the digital world. From the widespread acceptance of the internet, to the creation of digital music, movies, and media, to the spread of social networks, a lot has changed. One of the largest changes has been the distribution of digi...

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