People often use this very semantic, very pedantic difference and expand it to make it a difference in practical effect. Piracy and theft have the same practical effect : you&#x27;re accessing a consumable good without paying the requisite cost, your individual crime may not have a large effect on the ability of the seller to provide for that good, but, on the large scale, if everyone committed your crime, you would severely affect the seller&#x27;s ability to both 1. provide for him&#x2F;her&#x2F;their-self and 2. provide that good to the people. So, for all intents and purposes, yes, piracy is theft.