People ābuyā ones and zeroes?
Certainly those licenses are specifically designed to NOT constitute a āsaleā under 17USC109.
Newspeak at its finest. Licensing is buying, pirating is stealingā¦
Itās good that fewer people will be conned by the buy/license vagaries of e-merchants, but what would be better, would be if it wouldnāt be legal to use the word ābuyā when in fact ālicenseā is the appropriate wordā¦
Simpler is better. People are figuring it out and the problem will naturally fade as the population ages.
When you go to a book store to buy a book, they donāt have to explain to you what you can and cannot do because people understand that they canāt sell photocopies of the book or adapt the story to a script and produce a movie or play of it.
So, wait. You mean there are companies that want their customers to be less well-informed?
Mm. Sort of. Iām not entirely comfortable about a generation of consumers being conditioned to not question that they (we!) are merely licensees.
Well, sure they can. How else can we explain 50 Shades of Plagiarism or whatever itās called?
Edited to say that I meant āsure they can adapt the story to a script and produce a movie or play of it.ā
Then there are the airlines where you win a lottery ticket that gives you a chance to win a plane trip.
Just look at it!
Exactly this! Everyone giving up and accepting that we will forevermore only ever license things, and never properly buy anything, sounds like a bleak future if you ask me. What will happen to our cultural heritage any time DRM/equivalent servers go down? Nah, to hell with these licenses. We need proper ownership, that lasts for generations, if needed! How much of the 20th century music heritage would still be left if it was up to only money-grubbing companies? How many old rare tunes would still be left to us?
Thank heavens there is piracy, which for the longest time has been the only way to experience a great number of older games. And still is, for a fair few, even with great initiatives like GoG! Do we want all culture to be facing a similar planned obsolescence?
People ābuyā ones and zeroes?
Two bits for a pair.
Well, I sure do spend a lot of money on 'em!
But to be fairā¦ I get paid to make pixels and vectors do things (in ones and zeros) so I only pay for my ones and zeros using my other ones and zeros, by way of money which is never actually in my hands. Man, modern life is weird.
Of course, thereās a simple solution to this: the FTC could require that companies only use the word ābuyā for things that youāre, you know, buying. For everything else, merchants would have to make buttons that said, āTake a limited license now!ā
I take it you havenāt heard of the International Intellectual Property Alliance lobby in Washington DC?
The FTC works for the oligarchs. They could no more regulate them than the Kremlin could regulate Putin. No meaningful victory against the rentier aristocracy will be be won in the captured regulatory agencies.
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