To follow up on this...

#Neoclassical #economics, jumping off from #Marx, conflated #economic #rent and #profit in order to justify this kind of behavior.

TP=NSV+ER+Ext+M
Where:

TP = Total Profit, or Neoclassical profit, or #Marxist Returns to #Capital.

NSV = Natural Surplus Value (difference between the natural price and the cost of production). This is Classical Profit.

ER = Economic Rent (surplus due to privileged control over a scarce factor of production)

Ext = #Externalities (surplus generated by offloading production costs onto others) AKA #Pollution

M = #Monopoly (surplus generated by manipulating #supply and #demand, typically through control of the #market)

Only NSV is what you would call "legitimate", as the #producer #surplus is paired with a #consumer surplus - their ratio relative to the supply curves.

Now, all the others _reduce_ the consumer surplus and are therefore #theft.

Every single #technology #company (#TechCompany) - no... every single #company #profitable enough to be widely known, and many that aren't widely known, is _only_ profitable because of theft.

What's more, every action of #tech companies this millennia (including offering services for #free) has been designed to engage in this theft.