New Age Piratism. CREDIT: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/zharth/3379104454/" target="blank">zharth</a>
New Age Piratism. CREDIT: zharth

Law Professor Stuart Green on Property Law

Jun 8, 2012

A meme about illegal music downloads has been going around the Internet for a few years now. It goes something like this: Piracy isn't theft. Theft removes the original. Piracy makes a copy. Is there something to this idea?

A meme about illegal music downloads has been going around the Internet for a few years now. It goes something like this: Piracy isn't theft. Theft removes the original. Piracy makes a copy.

Stuart Green, from Rutgers Law School, thinks that there's something to the idea that the strict legal definition of theft doesn't really capture what's going on in music piracy and other forms of intellectual property rights infringement. Green thinks revisions to the law that lumped together many different kinds of theft have resulted in a system that doesn't match people's intuitions about the moral distinctions between kinds of takings of property.

To read the interview transcript, please download the document below.

You may also like

APR 16, 2026 Podcast

Geopolitics in a Fracturing World, with Aarathi Krishnan

Aarathi Krishnan, CEO of Raksha Intelligence Futures, discusses the political, economic, and technological dynamics shaping this moment of uncertainty and transition in the global system.

APR 10, 2026 Report

Reflections from Uehiro-Carnegie Endowment for Future Generations Study Tour of Japan

Access this report from the Uehiro-Carnegie Endowment for Future Generations study tour, in which Carnegie Council fellows and staff reflect on their trip to Japan.

Pentagon from above

APR 9, 2026 Article

Realism vs. Pragmatism: Understanding America’s New Rhetorical Landscape

Amid Trump's fiery rhetoric and debates over "realism," Professor Jason Ralph writes that "pragmatism" may offer a better alternative for the American public.

Not translated

This content has not yet been translated into your language. You can request a translation by clicking the button below.

Request Translation