Making a copy of the work (or data) without compensating the author of that work denies them the remuneration that they should ideally get for putting in the effort to build that work.
Now, you could always make the argument that creation of value only happens when a physical artifact is built, but that would also be a general argument against white collar jobs and make it okay for corporations to not pay a knowledge worker such as a software developer or a technical writer, simply because they provided a copy of their work.
If I'm not willing to pay a creator for their content, it must not have any value to me. Or atleast not what they were asking. So if I copy it, I'm not depriving them of payment for the value they provided really, since I believe the monetary value of it is near $0.
If you have a painting and are asking $1000, and I take it, you lost the $1000 you probably would have made eventually. If I take a look at it, I didn't steal $1000 from you. If I photograph it, I still didn't steal $1000 from you. If I print it out at home and put it on the wall, I still didn't steal $1000 from you.
> If I take a look at it, I didn't steal $1000 from you.
> If I photograph it, I still didn't steal $1000 from you.
This is where the inductive logic breaks down, because you are unlikely to make a perfect substitute (in other words, copy) of the product by simply looking at it, but by photographing it, now you can, which means you have denied compensation to the author of the work by being able to produce a perfect substitute.
> If I'm not willing to pay a creator for their content, it must not have any value to me.
If it doesn't have any value to you, why are you making a copy of it in the first place? :)
A photograph is not a perfect substitute for the painting made by the artist..... It's not on the same medium, and we know it wasn't made by the artist. Or are you implying I can sell a photo of the monalisa for about as much as the original since it's the same?
That’s a narrative about yourself that you tell yourself, and it might be true about you, but it’s not true about everybody. If pirating didn’t exist then some % of pirates WOULD buy more stuff. Unfortunately we don’t have great ways of differentiating people who can’t or won’t from those who would. But many people who would pay also love free stuff, so you can’t conclude takers of free stuff would not pay. And in aggregate this opting for free reduces creator compensation; hence the charges of theft.
Now, you could always make the argument that creation of value only happens when a physical artifact is built, but that would also be a general argument against white collar jobs and make it okay for corporations to not pay a knowledge worker such as a software developer or a technical writer, simply because they provided a copy of their work.