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Comment by Daz1 | Hacker News Reader

Sorry but this pointless semantic argument has been thoroughly debunked. A tangible object is not required for it to be considered theft in anything other than very specific legal contexts. That's why we talk about musicians 'stealing' riffs or chord progressions. That's why artists accuse AI of 'stealing' their digital artwork. That's why comedians complain about other comedians 'stealing' their jokes.

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It hasn’t been debunked. It’s still not theft despite artists using the “you stole my idea” colloquialism.

It’s non-rivalrous and a massive portion of the world does not see it as bad at all to copy ideas (see China), let alone anything on par with property theft.

It basically destroyed western industry, as designing anything is a lottery with very poor odds.

"We" do not talk about musicians stealing chord progressions, at least I do not. There is (in western diatonic music) a quite limited number of chord progressions (that sound "good"/"acceptable" to ears used to this kind of music) Should new music be prohibited from being created once they've been used? Should painters not be allowed to use a certain combination of colors anymore because another artist already used them? As a (studied but now hobby) musician, I think that is utter nonsense, excuse my french...

What an absolutely pedantic nitpick. Substitute 'riff' for chord progression then

“Stealing” a joke is not the same as stealing a TV.

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