has stealing become a cultural norm in SecondLife?

Please stop perpetuating this lie. Software pricing is based around the price elasticity of demand for the particular product. It's a price driven economy, and costs of doing business are scaled around that. So we might be running inferior software with overworked dev teams, poor tech support, and incorrect documentation because of software piracy, but we're not overpaying because of it. Consumers are paying what they are willing and able to pay, and that's how much companies are charging.

Its not a lie. It's just not the whole truth. Theres a difference.

Firstly, theiving is not rampant in SL, i.e., the vast majority of users do not hack the system to steal objects and/or commonly photograph textures to use on items of their own creation.

Furthermore, it is very important to point out the key differences between outright duplication and emulation. While it is socially unacceptable to exactingly copy an idea, to steal it, it is acceptable to use that idea to branch off from and develop into something similar. This generates a competition and diversity within a market, and intellectual advancement within other spheres of intellectual property.

Could we possibly have any more straw man arguments in this thread? Jesus. I'm not the RIAA. I'm not the BIP. I'm a self employed artist trying to pay my mortgage. Are you saying that you shouldn't have to respect my copyrights because copyright gives too much power to large corporations like Disney? I'm not Disney. Neither is any other artist trying to make an honest buck. This whole "the RIAA is evil so fuck everyone with a copyright" argument just sickens me.

Edit: I apologize for putting words in your mouth, Ordinal. I know you didn't actually say any of the above. I'm just baffled (and saddened) that anyone tries to justify IP theft in the context of SL. I really can't think of any SL artisans who are trying to exercise "ridiculous powers."

Let's see, if the person who created the texture originally made it pixel by pixel in a graphics program with the intention of using that texture to create income for themselves, and someone else copies that texture instead of PAYING FOR IT, as the creator had a perfect right to expect, then that is THEFT.

Unfortunately "texture theft" is a little fuzzy in SL, due to the fact that many images/"textures" are copied from the web and other media sources to begin with, and it's difficult to use the word "theft" in relation to the copying of something that is itself an illicit copy of someone else's work. Only if someone can prove that they CREATED the image themselves, and were the original owners of the image, and that they uploaded it themselves for commercial use in SL, can it be called "theft".

Major clue here, son - don't use a texture if you didn't copy it yourself from the web or other source and UPLOAD IT YOURSELF, or unless you bought it with full perms (including transfer/sale). Using that sneaky texture-grabbing program DOES COUNT AS THEFT.

It's also difficult to use the word theft since the law specifically defines a separate term for what is going on, which is "copyright infringement". That has too many syllables though, and doesn't bring out the same emotional response as theft though, so you should probably continue to use the word theft.