They are "forced" to do this because that's what they have to do to abide by copyright law. They can't create a digital duplicate without destroying the original.
It's an insane kind of hubris to do what they did, thinking it would change the world, and that no one would notice what they did. So I don't even really agree with your characterization, as they were convinced what they were doing was a risk worth taking, on the assumption it would be successful.
That's pretty silly. My competitor can't ride my bike either, and I didn't have to destroy the bike for that to be true.
This is just one example, but it has become unfortunately common across all social media platforms.