Coming from that era myself, buying a VHS tape absolutely gave you ownership of that copy of the movie. Same with music, which is why homemade mixtapes were such a popular and permitted thing.

Studios didn’t like it, but no one went after the guy with the little vinyl briefcase of 100 different mixtapes for every sort of occasion.

Open sourcing of operational licenses.

If buying isn’t owning, then piracy isn’t stealing.

Bourbon, Rum, Absinthe, Tequila