They don't loose the original in a physical sense, but they do loose stuff if you look at it this way: If the guy didn't pirate it, he would've bought it (assume he really wants the thing). Thus you loose the value of how much you can sell the thing for, and thus equivalent of loosing the actual thing.

You may argue that he can always sell to someone else, but that's besides the point, because the seller can usually obtain as much stock as he/she wants, so the only thing that matters is how much he/she can sell, and 1 less sale is 1 less bunch of profit.

But in reality not everyone who can't pirate will buy. Lets say every 1 in 10 who pirate would otherwise buy, then every 10 units pirated would equal 1 unit 'borrowed', so it's not as bad as directly stealing.

(This post was last modified: 27/08/2008 07:37 AM by Assassinator.)