Driving off with the rental car is a fine analogy if we were comparing this to not returning a DVD you rented.

But this is not that. And that is kind of the point.

Piracy is a breach of contract for sure. The point the author is trying to make is that our current licensing contracts around media are out of touch with the social contract (you pay for something, you get it).

Hence the moral hazard. So companies will flaunt the social contract (like in the case of Sony) with impunity but will get rightous as soon as people flaunt the legal contract. It’s a double standard, where all the power is in the hands of those with the biggest legal department.

You can’t define “theft” untill you first define justice. And if consumers and media holders can’t even agree to a just system, then why bother categorizing anything as theft at all?

For me personally, this comment rings true, but the reality is that if you do feel this way (like I), then you were never the audience for this add. Believe it or not, still plenty of people out there with buy-a-car-as-a-present kind of money.

Think lottery winner, successfully YouTuber buying their parents a car as a thank you, plain old old money types …