> The theft isn't of an object, it is theft of compensation due to a creator. Duplication isn't the issue.
Based on my limited understanding of copyright law, it does in fact concern itself with actual duplication, and is rather mum about compensation.
You can infringe by, say, altering something that is freely distributed in a way that is not permitted by its license (for instance changing the copyright notice to say that you created that work, rather than the author). The author could be adamant that permission to do that is not granted at any price (so that it's not an issue of compensation, but purely about unlicensed duplicates with unauthorized alterations).
Based on my limited understanding of copyright law, it does in fact concern itself with actual duplication, and is rather mum about compensation.
You can infringe by, say, altering something that is freely distributed in a way that is not permitted by its license (for instance changing the copyright notice to say that you created that work, rather than the author). The author could be adamant that permission to do that is not granted at any price (so that it's not an issue of compensation, but purely about unlicensed duplicates with unauthorized alterations).