Tis a Pirate's Life for Me

If buying isn't owning, then pirating isn't stealing

This is a two-panel edited meme using footage from the Tom and Jerry animated series. The top panel displays text printed on an open book page that reads "If buying isn't owning, then pirating isn't stealing", a logical argument responding to the common modern situation where paid digital game copies are not permanently owned by buyers, as they can be delisted, locked behind accounts, or revoked at any time by platforms or game developers. The bottom panel shows an extremely angry, overheated, red-faced Tom Cat with smoke rising from his head, labeled "Game developers", holding the same book and reacting with unbridled rage to the argument in the text. The meme mocks the perceived hypocrisy of game developers who refuse to give buyers permanent ownership of purchased games while also condemning piracy of those same games as theft.

This meme was shared on 9Gag via its RSS feed with the original title 'Tis a Pirate's Life for Me'. It is a derivative edited meme that repurposes a well-known viral scene of an angry Tom Cat reading from the classic Tom and Jerry cartoon series, with custom text added to comment on ongoing debates about digital game ownership and piracy that are widespread in online gaming communities.