quirzle

Too lazy to upload a separate image, but it's pink and south of the "stan" in Kazakhstan and north of the "stan" in Pakistan.

I blame the "piracy is stealing" advertising/propaganda. It was super effective, given that we all remember it.

Editing to add one of my favorite videos in the other direction, Copying is Not Theft.

You've never seen this? Never heard "home taping is killing music" or "don't copy that floppy"?

That "you wouldn't download a car" became the meme while the ad itself said "you wouldn't steal a car" drives home exactly how effective these ads were at conflating the two.

Yeah, I guess so. Best I can recall, most people I knew were either avid pirates or casually saw it as low-level criminal activity by the early 2000s.