CathInfo.com

Grave sin? I think you need to clarify that.

My understanding is that for a grave sin, you would need grave matter. Burning a copy of a $15 CD which will only deny a large corporation a few dollars -- is not grave matter.

Now some venial sins can add up to a mortal sin -- such as stealing $10 a day from a man. Eventually, you would end up stealing $310 in a given month. Other venial sins don't ever add up to a mortal sin. But of course, all venial sin helps dispose a person to graver sins, even mortal sin.

In the case of CDs, the dollar value would add up to make several $10 venial sins into a $100 mortal sin (don't take the $10/$100 amounts literally -- because I'm just throwing out sample numbers, to demonstrate what I'm saying)

Now some software is worth hundreds of dollars -- that would be grave matter.

I would conclude: don't make illegal copies of software, music, or movies. If you have any doubts, I dare you to ask your priest about it in confession. If he is OK with what you are doing, THEN (and only then) don't worry about it.

Matthew

Well,
  The fine for burning a CD is 250,000 dollars. I think we can say it is a grave matter. The fact that it is only "worth" 15 dollars new is of no consequence. That would be like saying "I don't think this thing is worth much so I'll steal it." There are more factors than monetary value which make something serious. Also, why would you not consider stealing 15 dollars a grave sin. You are a) stealing, and b) stealing something which cost millions to make. Even if your individual CD is being sold for 15 bucks, the CD itself took much more to complete and you are undermining that larger amount when you steal it.