You Wouldn’t Download a Car

You wouldn’t download a car refers to a parodistic take on the opening sentence from a 2004 anti-piracy PSA; “You wouldn’t steal a car”.

The public service announcement would liken online piracy to stealing and it would grow to serve as a stock for parodies and image macro memes.

via MEME

The PSA was created by the Federation Against Copyright Theft, Motion Picture Association and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore in July 2004.

Between 2004 and 2007, the announcement would precede movies in cinemas as well as numerous DVDs.

It was first uploaded to YouTube by avril134 on May 4^th, 2006, with the title Piracy It’s a Crime.

Parodies of the original public service announcement would start appearing online in 2007, especially on YouTube.

The first time “You wouldn’t download a car” emerged online can be liked to a post on the r/funny subreddit, which depicted the edited quote as a Demotivational Poster.

During the 2010’s, the phrase would appear online, especially in YouTube parodies and posts on Reddit.