Personal Response to "Is illegal downloading really stealing?"

Summary: This article briefly says that millions of people all over the world are illegally downloading songs, movies and even TV series from the internet. Are these people doing anything morally wrong?  For some, they consider illegal downloading to be a victimless crime and do not think it imposes significant cost one anyone. However, some believe that illegal downloading is indeed stealing as they think that it is similar to common theft, the owner of the property is entirely deprived of it's use as well as his ability to share it and dispose of it as he chooses, his gain your loss.

Personal response: We feel that illegal downloading is stealing. Theft is taking something from someone who is the rightful owner without their permission. It doesn’t matter if the rightful owner keeps an original version or not. If one is to download digital material such as music or movies from an unofficial source without the permission of the owner, it is considered as stealing. The only way you can get the right to download a digital material is via a legal transaction from which the rights owner can make a profit. When the owner produce a digital material, it is their property, in this case “intellectual property”. Property means that the owner has the right to ask something from you in exchange for you gaining access to the music. This may be money transaction, it may also be the requirement that you clearly recognize the artist’s moral right to always be mentioned as the creator of that song. 

- Huiying and Shiqing