OT: Forum legalish question

[Ed Lawson]

On Tue, 07 Mar 2006 08:56:01 -0500
Travis Roy <travis at scootz.net> wrote:


> Theft \Theft\ (th[e^]ft), n. [OE. thefte, AS.
> 
>       [thorn]i['e]f[eth]e, [thorn][=y]f[eth]e,
[thorn]e['o]f[eth]e.
>       See Thief.]
> 
>      1. (Law) The act of stealing; specifically, the felonious
>          taking and removing of personal property, with an
intent
>          to deprive the rightful owner of the same; larceny.
>          [1913 Webster]
> 
>       Note: To constitute theft there must be a taking without
the
>             owner's consent, and it must be unlawful or
felonious;
>             every part of the property stolen must be removed,
>             however slightly, from its former position; and it
must
>             be, at least momentarily, in the complete
possession of
>             the thief. See Larceny, and the Note under Robbery.
>             [1913 Webster]

Without taking a position on whether copyright infringement is
theft, I believe it is important to understand  that the
definition of what constitutes theft in  a dictionary is totally
irrelevant and just plain useless as a guide to what constitutes
theft within any given jurisdiction in terms of whether an act is
criminal or not.

In NH what constitutes theft is defined in RSA Chapter 637 and
the various crimes defined in that chapter are far broader
than the quoted dictionary definition.

Ed Lawson