Basically a credit card is a device that is designed to identify you. It is not much more than an electronic signature.

If you clone a credit card and attempt to use it to withdraw some money that you don't own, it is just the same as if you were counterfeiting a signature on a pay cheque. By doing so you pretend to be someone you're not. This is fraud, identity theft, and must be punished by law.

Now if it was possible to clone a credit card that easily, then it would mean that the protection system of the bank has become obsolete, and better ways of electronic identification should be designed. (I guess you don't use PIN protected cards as we do in Europe, but anyway...)

An other way of seeing this is to consider that your card is similar to the keys of your house. It is a device designed for protection against intrusion in your property and theft of your belongings. If someone manages to make a copy of your keys without you being aware of it, then he can enter your house without effraction and take your belongings. Though, It would still be theft. Keys are a protection device, but they doesn't give any property right. The only thing that gives this is a official document which states that you are the owner of the house. It is this document and the sign of public authority written on it, that has to be protected by public force.

As we can see this is a very different issue from the so called "piracy". The law must protect sign, not data. Protection of data has to be mainly a matter of personal responsibility.