It's very simple. A theft requires something be taken from someone.
Well yes, by infringing on the copyright holders rights and obtaining his intellectual property without permission your essentially taking away potential profit, you go on about this in your next sentence even.
If someone steals a physical copy of music, it is theft. There is actual property loss. If someone copies it and gives that copy to a stranger, by definition, it isn't theft–it is copyright infringement. Legally, that is a licensing violation.
Which is defined as Criminal Copyright Law in the United states, "Criminal penalties, in general, require that the offender knew that he or she was committing a crime" The old "I didn't know I was doing anything wrong" shouldn't be an acceptable excuse anymore for this.
The idea that this is somehow theft is retarded. First, it assumes that if a copyrighted work is illegally downloaded that it would have otherwise been legitimately purchased. Second, it creates the absurd scenario wherein burning a playlist of music for a friend who does not own the tracks makes you both thieves.
Your First statement is a little absurd, your suggesting that if the digital media I want is not available for purchase where I live that it automatically makes it legal to pirate? I'm not 100% if that's where you stand with that but it's what I make of it.
For your Second statement, no, not thieves, just that your copyright infringing, this still falls in to the criminal code seeing as how you intentionally copied the music.
I once recorded a CD featuring a copyrighted piano piece by Chick Corea ("No Mystery"). This may have been done in violation of copyright laws, as I recorded and burned the piece to CD and distributed it to an individual for personal, non-financial gain. I did not compensate Chick Corea, Polydor Records, or instruct the recipient of said CD to buy the track.
Is that theft?
If it isn't theft, how is downloading a music file theft when the end result is exactly the same?
Again, it's technically not theft, read for yourself bellow, try to understand that just because your not using the word theft to describe piracy, rightfully so, it's still an illegal act which can result in fines more than jail time. Albeit some have faced jail time but those are usually specific cases, for example the owners of the file sharing site that promote piracy. The law is the law, unfortunately at times, and if your breaking it, well good luck to you, just stop assuming that because piracy is not exactly the same thing as theft that it shouldn't be illegal.
I'm not a lawyer, but think I have a good understanding of the laws, more so those that I break from time to time.
"The terms
piracy and
theft are often associated with copyright infringement. The original meaning of
piracy is "robbery or illegal violence at sea", but the term has been in use for centuries as a synonym for acts of copyright infringement.
Theft, meanwhile, emphasizes the potential commercial harm of infringement to copyright holders. However, copyright is a type of
intellectual property, an area of law distinct from that which covers robbery or theft, offenses related only to tangible
property. Not all copyright infringement results in commercial loss, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1985 that infringement does not
easily equate with theft."
