Is Illegal = Sin? Example: Piracy

If illegal = sin, then let me ask you this, is sin = illegal?
Many would say no. Good.

Now, is legal = sinless?
Many christians who have studied their Bible would say no. Good.

So
we can say that doing something legal does not mean you are not
sinning. Hence there are legal lust, legal lies, legal cheats, legal
murders, legal robberies, etc. This proves that no legal system can
replace what defines a sin, an act against God.

Now, if legal
does not mean sinless, then we need to ask ourselves again, does
illegal mean sin? From the Bible, we learn of submission to higher
authority. We christians are not rebellious. The children of God are
faithful to God and recognize the submission to a higher power. And God
is the highest power. Hence, conflict of one lower authority will
challenge us.

If so, how can illegal be sin? Nevertheless, we
cannot shame the name of God, thus we cannot submit to rebellious
temptation, nor can we cease to serve God due to legal system. Hence,
one must know when to act, when not to act. This is wisdom. To act, or
not to act.

Is piracy a sin? That is, piracy of softwares, movies, videos, etc.
Obviously, it is illegal. But is it a sin? I would say yes and no, for
the term itself is not definite. No, because of the simple conclusion,
illegal does not mean sin. Yes, because of the sinful intentions of
piracy: rebellious act, gluttony, time wasting, lazy(Lazy because one does not strive to show one's own work). But not because
of "stealing". Hence I said the term is not definite. Piracy is not
stealing. Piracy is a term re-created to disguise stealing or stealing
of ideas(stealing of ideas is an act of laziness, hence sinful), and
such is made illegal in order for the party on the opposite side to
profit with lesser responsibilities. Such intention is itself,
gluttony, power-hungry(in fact, any slight desire to power for oneself
is sinful, the opposite of desiring selfless power for the glory and
power of God), hence sinful. Thus, a legal act of sinning.

Stealing means transference of ownership without the permission of the original owner. Since this cannot be defined in piracy, for there's no transference of ownership but "expansion" of ownerships, "piracy" was the term used in the legal system.

So in conclusion, we can see that the act of piracy is rather useless.

I am glad to
be able to clarify this. Otherwise, when will be the time when quoting
famous quotes without payment is illegal too?

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7 Responses to Is Illegal = Sin? Example: Piracy

  1. Samantha says:

    I think you meant greed...
    Gluttony is for food, drink.

  2. Tim says:

    But same difference

  3. Soichi says:

    Interesting topic. This is my own view, but I would consider anything that Jesus wouldn't do as sin. Would Jesus be downloading copyrightted material from the internet? Probably not.. So, it seems to me piracy is sin.

    Having said that, I have to confess that I still download MP3s from internet sometimes.. 🙂 although most of the time I use Wal-mart's mp3 download service.)

  4. Tim says:

    Jesus probably wouldn't download it even if it's Not copyrighted. Yet, I wouldn't say downloading non-copyrighted materials is a sin.

    But note this: could downloading non-copyrighted materials be a sin? Yes.

  5. Tim says:

    I brought this topic up due to the fact that people especially in the U.S. has respected manmade law to a point where it is equivalent to God's law, God's judgement, God's Word, if not above.
    This is beginning to confuse many especially christians who also knew to uphold manmade law but actually due to God's command, not men's command.

    Manmade rules and laws can never be equivalent to God's at ANY level at all.

    Thus, the right thing is doing the same thing, but the wrong thing is having a different purpose. And such is the dialogue of intentionalism.

  6. Samantha says:

    Tim, Why did you say Jesus probably wouldn't download it even if it's not copyrighted?

  7. Tim says:

    I know a few pastors who have not much knowledge in computers and yet are still very informative and knowledgeable.
    A physical public library is still a very resourceful place. And Jesus is definitely better than them.

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