I'm not sure you've killed the metaphor yet.<p>Because, in fact, the sale of gas is subject to a great deal of regulation. That's to prevent someone from selling you adulterated gas that destroys your car's emission system. Or from selling you leaded gas that pollutes the air that our kids have to breathe.<p>And the reason the manufacturer doesn't need to enforce your use of the roads is that it's already being enforced by a <i>higher</i> authority. We have cops for that. And they very much <i>do</i> dictate that you keep your car on public roads, and not go driving off across someone else's lawn, or the National Mall.<p>If you think these extensions to the metaphor make no sense, you're missing the elephant in the room: <i>Personal computers are insecure</i>, and the average web surfer is more likely (probably, alas, by an order of magnitude) to have their computer steal their credit card numbers or grind to a halt under a flood of malware than they are to crack open the box or write a single line of code. An enormous number of people <i>don't want</i> the freedom I want, any more than they want to own an acetylene torch.