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We Don't Really Own the Digital Possessions That We Buy Online

posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday July 01 2020, @02:26PM   Printer-friendly
from the gone-with-the-wind dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.iafrikan.com/2020/06/30/do-we-really-own-our-digital-possessions/

During 2019, Microsoft announced that it will close the books category of its digital store. While other software and apps will still be available via the virtual shop front, and on purchasers' consoles and devices, the closure of the eBook store takes with it customers' eBook libraries. Any digital books bought through the service – even those bought many years ago – will no longer be readable after July 2019. While the company has promised to provide a full refund for all eBook purchases, this decision raises important questions of ownership.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 01 2020, @10:30PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 01 2020, @10:30PM (#1015175)

    All the downsides of Communism with none of the upside.

    How is that communism? I'm not trolling here. I honestly don't get it.

    How can corporations using their *market power* to sell poor quality/planned-in obsolescent products and provide poor customer service without interference from the government be termed anything even close to Communism?

    You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday July 01 2020, @10:39PM (1 child)

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 01 2020, @10:39PM (#1015177) Journal

    He's not saying that it *is* Communism, just that it's instituted all the bad features of same, without copying any (unspecified) good ones.

    I don't really agree with him either, but monopolies are not good, even when only of a very minor thing like the drawer of a refrigerator.

    --
    Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 01 2020, @10:52PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 01 2020, @10:52PM (#1015182)

      He's not saying that it *is* Communism, just that it's instituted all the bad features of same, without copying any (unspecified) good ones.

      Which features? That's the part I don't get. As far as I can tell, it's (broken/distorted) capitalism, at its worst, all the way down -- Communism is just being used as a trope in an attempt to paint anything bad as being a result of actions by an out group [wikipedia.org] and not an issue which should be addressed, IMHO.

  • (Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday July 02 2020, @06:24AM

    by sjames (2882) on Thursday July 02 2020, @06:24AM (#1015294) Journal

    By leaving you with no effective actual ownership of anything. You don't own your e-books, you don't own your OS (unless you give the corporate world the slip and install Linux of *BSD). Your major appliances are more akin to a long term rental. In many cases, functionality will appear, disappear, or change at the actual owner's whim, you just rented the thing.

    So there we are, "Imagine no possessions...."

    It's not actually Communism, it's just the downside.