Piracy is copyright infringement, which is a completely separate legal and moral concept.
My question to you is - if I could duplicate a physical object you own, with no harm or deprivation suffered by you, should that be a crime?
Piracy is copyright infringement, which is a completely separate legal and moral concept.
My question to you is - if I could duplicate a physical object you own, with no harm or deprivation suffered by you, should that be a crime?
Assault isn't theft either but Piracy and Assault are still both crimes. Somebody who sells say photographs is _harmed_ by you just using your phone to take a picture print it out later without paying them anything. It's their livelihood.
However, whether is the crime of piracy worth the current penalties? No. They're excessive and that's what the parent was saying.
Reduced demand leads to reduced income/revenue. If someone did some action that directly definitively reduced your income, bringing you from say 130k to 110k, that would 100% qualify as "harm or deprivation".