SOPA

[Professor S]

Originally Posted by Vampyr

In laymen terms there is no difference, but in legal terms there is.

Downloading a copy of a file is not theft, it's copyright infringement. Theft means that the other person was deprived of their item.

You are referring to larceny, a form of theft (non-violent), and that is indeed associated with jail time, either state or county.

http://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=1105

larceny

n. the crime of taking the goods of another person without permission (usually secretly), with the intent of keeping them. It is one form of theft. Some states differentiate between grand larceny and petty larceny based on the value of the stolen goods. Grand larceny is a felony with a state prison sentence as a punishment and petty larceny is usually limited to county jail time.