this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2023
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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Joyriding depreciates the car. Plus most of the time the gas is not refilled. This is stealing.
Scratching a car also depreciates its value, would you argue that is stealing also?
I wasn't trying to give a perfect analogy, anyway. Joyriding is a lesser form of theft, with a lower barrier to conviction. Copyright infringement also has a lower barrier to conviction, however it's completely different to theft (and joyriding) in that it is not a crime.
Stealing requires using something for yourself. Like that gasoline was used or joyriding itself was used. Scratching a car is just vandalizing. What object you are stealing by vandalizing?
Isn't scratching a car stealing the resale value? The owner has to pay to get it fixed to restore the value. Therefore, vandalism is theft. Quod erat up your demonstrandum :)
Also, assault is theft (of peace of mind), rape is theft (of trust), flaying someone alive is theft (of skin).
If you want to stretch the definition of theft to include any harm, even without depriving someone of their property (i.e. the actual definition), you make the word meaningless. There are already words for other crimes.
In order for it to count as a theft, one has to take something from a person and use it yourself in such way that the other person can not use that anymore (unless it is somehow returned it). So, at least two conditions should be satisfied, not just one. In case of gasoline, it is clear cut. In case of joyriding, you are stealing a portion of car's life. The owner can not use that portion on themselves anymore (thus depreciation), but you did.
Scratching car - you did not take anything and used for yourself. Same goes for other things you mention, except possibly the flaying, if you really take that skin for yourself and use it somehow for your benefit. Make a lamp or something. Obviously, flaying would not be just stealing even in this case, because you have induced suffering as well (and possibly death).