Those are rookie numbers. Need to start getting entire TV shows in 4k and things you've seen previously but may want to watch again in the future quickly and easily.
If it's on my Jellyfin server, I own it as much it's possible to own anything.
If they wanted me to pay for it, maybe they shouldn't have dicked me around, watering down my subscribed services while simultaneously jacking up the price.
How ? Please share so that people like me can learn. I've started watching Louis Rossman YouTube videos and that guy actually makes sense about how companies are treating their customers.
Not the OP, but I'm buying DRM free ebooks and software only, and for every album, movie or series I purchase, I'll download a pirated copy that I add to my offline storage + backup.
If a book I want is not available without DRM, I'll buy a hardcover and a pirated copy.
I mean, that technically applies to everything. The government can seize your land, the police are in the news every few days for straight up taking money out of people's homes and vehicles and shooting dogs, robbery is still a living profession, etc
There's really not a lot that sentence doesn't apply to, if anything at all.
When it comes to the US government at least, there are 4th Amendment protections in place, so no, your property can't be seized "for any reason or no reason at all".
Theft is a thing, but it's random and you have the right to defend yourself in your own home. You also aren't at risk for losing EVERYTHING. Not in the way you are if your digital library license gets revoked.
Fyi, steam doesn't add additional DRM to games. So long as the maker hasn't added anything significant, you can often just copy the game folder out, and run it independently. There's nothing (in theory) to stop you backing it up yourself.
I like that on GOG you know you own it because they let you download the installer DRM free so you literally can keep a separate copy of all of your purchases. You will always have access to them regardless of what happens to GOG. Videos, music, games, everything they sell.
If you're on Lemmy, you almost certainly understand the problem and know how to acturally own digital stuff.
The problem is all the normies who can't even see the problem. We need everyone to be protected by law and it all to be citizen oriented. As the moment, it's all stacked in favour of exploitive multinational companies. Maybe ever was it so, but we need to fight that.
We treat it as a tech problem, something to work round, but it's a political problem and we need to solve it politically.
Drives me mad the main stream seam unaware/ignoring that it's about anything free piracy. You hear next to nothing about the problem of DRM, digital ownership, digital freedom or even proper competition in proper markets. There is sometimes mentions of Right To Repair, but they never follow the thread. Or talk about how the internet runs on FOSS. A FOSS system like Debian is a wonder, that still, after 15y of use, floors me when I think about it. A utopian vision of humans can do.
Seriously, sometimes I wish we could get all the shitty execs and politicians alone in a room with all of us and just insult them for their shitty behavior, like the Chevy Chase comedy central roast.
I mean who wouldn't want to see the expression on the head of Nestle's face when he's told his mother should have swallowed?
It all depends on the licence. Even if you buy something on physical media you may not technically own it. If something has a FOSS licence MIT, BSD, GPL, etc Then yes you do own your copy and no one can change that.
I may only have a license to view the contents of a dvd, but at least I'll always be able to view it as long as it's in my possession and I have a dvd player.
Content you can only access remotely via someone else systems (or requiring remote authorization via there systems) can be taken away at anytime regardless of the terms of your license, even supposedly "indefinite/permanent/lifetime" licences.
Both of these items use the same term 'purchase'. This term used to refer to the first situation only, but now it covers both.
FOSS licenses are distribution licenses, not EULAs. You have the right to own and use software you acquire even without agreeing to them; they only "kick in" when you decide to do something that would otherwise violate copyright law.
I liked the explicit way version 2 of the GPL explained it:
Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the Program (independent of having been made by running the Program).
Version 3 says the same, but less clearly (note that "affirms" is entirely different from "grants"):
This License explicitly affirms your unlimited permission to run the unmodified Program.
EULAs presume to "grant" you something you already have due to the First Sale Doctrine (namely, the right to use your property) and are therefore complete bunk as they lack "consideration." If you believe EULAs are somehow valid just because the copyright cartel's shysters say so, you need to learn to quit taking advice from the enemy!
No, and once I became aware of the fact realized that I was kinda screwed when it came to video games.
Every single video game I have purchased is on Steam, and considering its DRM and licence business model, I had multiple conversations with my friends who also had the same worry and wondered what would happen if Steam shut down one day. Valve did state that they'll remove the DRM if the platform shut down, but there's no way of knowing the future as million things can happen and for all we know, they might change their minds or not be in a position to remove the DRM once the time came.
Not "if", but "when".
But don't worry, before that they will start dropping games to save on storage costs, so odds are you will no longer have access to anything you "own" way before they go under.
TBH, the default steam DRM is trivial to remove yourself with steam emulators and stuff, and many indie games dont even use it. The real problem is 3rd party DRM like Denuvo, which Valve probably can't remove even if they wanted to.
I am curious why you think that. I download Bandcamp files and place it on a home server, and I have never had any problems. It is conceivable that they have a tracker or some bull shit connected to it, but more than a little unlikely.
Bandcamp files play fine on non bandcamp-approved playing devices. This is a big win on my book.
The only "digital" I download, is something that I can put on my personal storage. If I can download it to Nintendo Switch and then move it to USB or SD card, then I can clone the sd card and therefore I own it. (immediate usage might be different, and they may chose to delete if it is put back on the Switch. But I still own it, I just need to find an alternative method to use it).
Same goes with games/movies/whatever. If I can download it and store it on my NAS, I own it.
If you are paying for "digital" but you cannot acquire a copy of it, then it is NOT "Digital" it is streaming. You are paying for the privilege of using some services' electronic library, but you do not own anything on it.
I've been watching this argument lately, and its amusing. The whole Sony thing about Discovery (or whatever it was) has nothing to do with ownership. You were paying to access a library that Sony curated. Sony dropped the contract with the other party, and chose to tidy their library. You just have access to it, because they let you. You do not have any ownership whatsoever, you signed a T&C that says Sony curates the library and they can do what they like.
People seem to have a hard time using words like "content", "streaming" and "digital" vs "electronic copy", "local digital copy" and "DLC"; and then confuse "ownership and "content access".
I really wish there was some form of individual copyright that could be sold for specific media. I buy a song on itunes - I own a limited license to listen to that song so long as iTunes may serve it. If I was smart enough to download it to my device, then I might hold onto it a few moments longer in spite of Apple losing the copyright and denying me the ability to listen again on devices without the download. Sucks for me right?
What if I could buy a limited copyright? One that is strictly tied to my individual person and that specific media I had purchased. That copyright is nontransferable, but it is platform agnostic. I could then use that legal copyright to view or listen to that media on a streaming or distribution platform of my choosing. I could listen to a song on Spotify, or Pandora, or Apple, or Google, and I only had to buy it once. Those platforms would not need to negotiate copyright access for media, only demonstrate the ability to serve that media and limit access to those with the copyright.
I would HAPPILY buy all of my media for a ... 3rd time? 5th time? God I don't even know how many times I have purchased some of my music. Vinyl, CD, iTunes, streaming services a plenty... a second CD or two from mixes. Yeesh. I'm fucking tired of it. I want to be able to feel as if I had some kind of longer lasting ability to access the media of which I have paid for.
Here's the summary for the wikipedia article you mentioned in your comment:
Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures (TPM) like access control technologies, can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. DRM technologies govern the use, modification and distribution of copyrighted works (e.g. software, multimedia content) and of systems that enforce these policies within devices. DRM technologies include licensing agreements and encryption.Laws in many countries criminalize the circumvention of DRM, communication about such circumvention, and the creation and distribution of tools used for such circumvention. Such laws are part of the United States' Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and the European Union's Information Society Directive – with the French DADVSI an example of a member state of the European Union implementing that directive.Many users argue that DRM technologies are necessary to protect intellectual property, just as physical locks prevent personal property from theft. For examples, they can help the copyright holders for maintaining artistic controls, and supporting licenses' modalities such as rentals. Industrial users (i.e. industries) have expanded the use of DRM technologies to various hardware products, such as Keurig's coffeemakers, Philips' light bulbs, mobile device power chargers, and John Deere's tractors. For instance, tractor companies try to prevent farmers from making repairs via DRM.DRM is controversial. There is an absence of evidence about the DRM capability in preventing copyright infringement, some complaints by legitimate customers for caused inconveniences, and a suspicion of stifling innovation and competition. Furthermore, works can become permanently inaccessible if the DRM scheme changes or if a required service is discontinued. DRM technologies have been criticized for restricting individuals from copying or using the content legally, such as by fair use or by making backup copies. DRM is in common use by the entertainment industry (e.g., audio and video publishers). Many online stores such as OverDrive, use DRM technologies, as do cable and satellite service operators. Apple removed DRM technology from iTunes around 2009. Typical DRM also prevents lending materials out through a library, or accessing works in the public domain.
Ahem, what about car rentals when you travel? 😜 Just kidding: in this case you know very well you're not owning the car and only using it for a very short time
It depends on how you acquired it. Nobody can take the license for your pirated, modded fallout. Literally buy it anywhere but itch.io? You probably don't.
You bought it but you don't own it. The companies that made them can always decide to reach through the internet and rearrange them better to their liking
Yes I own things because I simply don't pay for something if I'd need to open proprietary software or pay a subscription fee to use it.
It's really quite simple and remarkably easy to do, it's just more mental load to decide what to buy and people just want to pay monthly and forget about it and get mad when it stops magically working.
It's a very complex answer, but in short, no. You don't own anything.
Even if you buy a CD or record you own the medium and the right to reproduce the content, but you don't own the content itself. Hence why it's illegal to make copies or commercially reproduce content. Same thing with electronic devices. You might own the hardware itself, but design of it is copyrighted and software you only get the permission to use.
I think it depends on the definition of own, if it can be sold to someone else who will then own it. If it doesn't have value like that, then it is just something you have, like pocket lint.
Yes, that is "fucked" up. The same way it is fucked up that not all VHS you once bought and own have been preserved without loss and none of them will forever. The same way it is fucked up that a software product you once bought and own won't be updated to be usable with your requirements forever.
The mortality of a product does suck, but a) this isn't exclusive to the greed of subscription services and b) you don't need to use a product til the end of time to make it worth it. E.g. I don't use Netflix anymore, but everything I was able to consume during my subscription was ridiculously worth it to me.
Let's say you paid $150 for microsoft office. One day microsoft says, we are only doing office 365 subscriptions and when you launch word, it will not let you use it. It makes you pay for a cloud subscription instead.