“Steal a little and they throw you in jail; steal a lot and they make you king.”
The quote "Steal a little and they throw you in jail; steal a lot and they make you king." is famous quote attributed to Bob Dylan (1941), American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist.
Song lyrics, Infidels (1983), Sweetheart Like You
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Bob Dylan 523
American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist 1941Related quotes
“Steal a loaf of bread and they hang you, steal a land and they'll make you king.”
Source: Rigante series, Stormrider, Ch. 5
As quoted in Tesla : The Modern Sorcerer (1999) by Daniel Blair Stewart, p. 411.
Date unknown
Variant: Everyone steals in commerce and industry. I have stolen a lot myself. But at least I know how to steal.
Honesty
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part VIII - Handel and Music
UTI interview (2004)
Context: The law about what is stealing is very clear. Stealing is taking something away from someone so they cannot use it. There’s no way that making a copy of something is stealing under that definition.
If you make a copy of something, you’ll be prosecuted for copyright infringement or something similar — not larceny (the legal term for stealing). Stealing, like piracy and intellectual property, is another one of those terms cooked up to make us think of intellectual works the same way we think of physical items. But the two are very different.
You can’t just punish people because they took away a “potential sale”. Earthquakes take away potential sales, as do libraries and rental stores and negative reviews. Competitors also take away potential sales.