With a club good there is a tangible thing such as a running machine. By my use of it, you are unable to use it. But we judge the tradeoff to be worth it because we don't each want to go out and buy a gym.
That is unlike copyright where the cost of making a copy is nothing, and may even increase the value of the copied data through network effects.
I was using the definition on wikipedia. Quoting from that page;
> Examples of club goods include private golf courses, cinemas, cable television, access to copyrighted works, and the services provided by social or religious clubs to their members.
Also this definition on econport.org;
> Club Goods: Goods that are excludable but non-rival, or non-subtractable. This means that while certain people can be excluded from the consumption of a good, one person's consumption of it does not diminish another person's.
The point is; people say copyright violation is stealing, is isn't stealing, and arguments occur. To have a good conversation about it, it's useful to distinguish club good from private goods, because then we can talk about the difference between "unauthorised access to a club good" (piracy) and "unauthorised posession of a private good" (theft).
By "access to copyrighted works" they may be talking about going to the club's library and reading the copy they already have (which may occasionally conflict with other members' use) rather than making more copies.
With a club good there is a tangible thing such as a running machine. By my use of it, you are unable to use it. But we judge the tradeoff to be worth it because we don't each want to go out and buy a gym.
That is unlike copyright where the cost of making a copy is nothing, and may even increase the value of the copied data through network effects.