How DRM and EULAs make us into "digital serfs"

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/09/06/theoretical-applied-demonology.html

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Ben, I want to say one word to you. Just one word: Plastics. -
It’s available for rent.

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Well, you own it - at least you paid for it. You just don’t control it.

I remember reading about this concept in Information feudalism by Peter Drahos back in 2002. Still an interesting book if anyone feels like a look.

I was reading a series of books set in ancient Rome in the .lit format, the files were saved to an SD card. The author got into some kind of beef with the publishers and all those books disappeared from my Pocket PC. No warning, no explanation, just gone. DRM truly sucks!

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DRM isn’t quite feudal: most of the current systems have little or no support for vassal inheritance; which was somewhere between ‘vital feature’ and ‘cultural obsession’.

We won’t have feature parity until you can pay Apple your best cow for the privilege of getting access to your father’s iTunes library…

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