Pirates justify their theft all the time (to themselves, at least). "Abandonware" is a perfect example. Who decides whether software is abandonware or not? Certainly not the parties who hold its publishing rights; it's the pirates. I doubt very many of them actually bother to get in touch with the publishers or any other relevant parties to ensure they actually never intend to continue to market or profit their product before they rip it off.
And who decides what is "theft" ? The last time I checked even the laws on the books don't support YOUR use of the word "theft". Information falls under copyright law since things are copied, not stolen. True "pirating" also involves SELLING the information to make a profit off someone else's work, not just copying it, but that fact seems to have escaped the press over time as well. People like you like to throw words like "theft" around and in my opinion this only make yourself look ignorant of both the law and the concept.
Who gets to decide what copyright law is and how long it lasts? The last time I looked several large corporations like Disney have managed to lobby the thing into near infinity when it was only supposed to be used to protect a single person's ideas during their lifetime and only for things like books. Software was never included because it never existed.
Who decides now what is and is not a copyright violation? People in the pockets of these corporations? Yes, I think so or the laws would reflect their original intent. Copyrights ORIGINALLY lasted 14 years with the option of another 14 year renewal and then became public domain. Since 1978 after much lobbying, it is now the life of the author plus 70 years and shows no sign of ending there the way it's continually modified by lobbying of corporations that never die (i.e. early Disney should be public domain by now since it dates prior to 1978, but it's already been extended to 2023 for the earliest cartoons and it will never happen if Disney gets their way).
Current law also ignores both the scope and shelf life of computer technology. A book may be viable for hundreds of years but even it was limited to a time not much longer than the life of the author whereas software becomes ancient in much shorter periods of time and hence the reason old games devalue so quickly to the point where they are no longer even offered for sale because the cost to do so outweighs any sales they might make.
So please don't go around calling people thieves when you have
no idea what you're talking about. People should be supported for their ideas and works, but there should also be reasonable limits on these works. Mickey Mouse should not be exempt just because a large corporation thinks it can make money on it until the end of time, for example.
Patent law is far more reasonable and ironically, it gets far more bad press due to all the insane software patents given out these days, something also never designed into the law and therefore able to be challenged in court. But by your thinking, almost every corporation on earth is guilty of theft since most of them have been accused of patent violations at some point including Apple.
