From Playstation Games to ebooks and family photos, corporations are replacing ownership with temporary access. But we don’t have to accept that.
  • Jiral@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2 hours

    I never built up a CD collection but I now started a digital DRM free local collection. Yes, I am actually buying that stuff (call me stupid if you like) but only loss free.

    One of the few disks I own is sadly too corruoted for error free ripping, luckuly I still have it as mp3. That album simply does not wxist online anymore, anywhere. Possibly not even in the darker corners of the net. I think that happens more often than many believe.

  • Blackmist@feddit.ukEnglish
    3 hours

    It’s high time laws protected us from this. Yes, even from High Lord Gaben.

    If we buy it, we own it. We can transfer them to other account. Any stores selling stuff must have a plan in place for what happens when the store closes, whether that’s transferring ownership to another store, or something involving making files publicly downloadable…

  • TBi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2 hours

    Realistically we shouldn’t need laws for this. We should all just vote with our wallets. If we can’t own then you go out of business.

    However there should be laws against companies changing the terms of the contract after sale.

  • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    13 hours

    The starving (and recent gutting) of the public domain demonstrates the institution of intellectual property persists in bad faith. Therefore media piracy is a legitimate means to acquire and consume media.

    As the C-suite and its political and paramilitary minions have shown us crime is not about behavior and consequences, but who you are and to whom you bend the knee.

  • MangoCats@feddit.itEnglish
    16 hours

    Well, aren’t you quaint. Next thing you’ll be asking for is seed corn that you can replant year after year from the corn it grows, heated seats in your cars without a subscription payment, replaceable batteries in your battery powered electronics.

      • MangoCats@feddit.itEnglish
        10 hours

        I think I got the last one of those, but mine did come with a “free” phone app to open/close the door. The app turned into an advertising platform about 3 years after I put the opener in - no options out, gotta see the ads if I want to use my opener via app.

          • MangoCats@feddit.itEnglish
            41 minutes

            Have one, suppose I could try tweaking filters around whatever it gets its ads from, but the code to present the button to open the door doesn’t show up until after the ads do, so I suspect all my pihole will be able to do is break the app.

              • MangoCats@feddit.itEnglish
                36 minutes

                In the world of “fair” - it still has the old battery powered remote buttons to keep in the cars, and the button on the wall, just like openers always have had, but I’m not in my cars or near the button about 2/3 of the time I want to open or close that door - so I just get pissed off specifically at that company every time I use their app. Whatever they get from those ads really can’t be worth that loss of customer good will, can it?

  • pemptago@lemmy.mlEnglish
    16 hours

    Beyond the obvious problem of paying but not owning, it’s impossible to watch/listen without that data being stored on a massive corporation’s server and likely sold to hundreds of advertisers. Last I saw Spotify had over 300 venders they share data with. I’ve seen sites with over 1000.

    So you’re not only paying for something you don’t own, but you’re also paying to have a larger profile in the surveillance capitalism machine.

    • MangoCats@feddit.itEnglish
      16 hours

      have a larger profile in the surveillance capitalism machine.

      This is why, when I’m not watching, I’ll set Netflix to stream movies I like.

  • DJKJuicy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    22 hours

    It’s always been hypocrisy. The media companies only say what part you actually own based whatever is most profitable to them.

    Technically, back in the day, when you bought any music wether it be 8-track, LP, cassette, or CD, you were purchasing a single-user license for the music and the media was just how the record companies delivered it to you. That’s why Napster and all the piracy that followed it was/is illegal, because you don’t own a license when you copy the digital file.

    HOWEVER… Over the many decades I’ve been alive I’ve scratched, twisted, demagnetized, or just plain old lost hundreds of LPs, cassettes, and CDs. Do you think if I requested a new copy of the music that the record companies would send me a replacement?

    No, they would not. So I obtained digital replacements by…other means.

    Now that we’re all used to digital copies, suddenly that’s been the important part all along.

    • isleepinahammock@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      17 hours

      That’s why if you want to support artists, you can buy the shit locked down files so they get the artist gets paid, and then just never use them. Pay for them but get your actual files from piracy.

      • Thorned_Rose@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        14 hours

        Better yet, if the artist has a website or something like Bandcamp buy from there so they actually get a decent chunk of the money you give instead of the pittance left over after the distributors and record companies have taken their cut.

  • Hogrider@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1 day

    If buying isn’t owning, then pirating cannot be stealing. These corporations are literally herding people back onto the seas. I need to go get myself a new flag with a skull and bones, since I tied my boat to the pier about fifteen-twenty years ago.

    • flambonkscious@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      8 hours

      That’s just it with most of these services - you never bought 'em. You pay a subscription fee each month to use their service.

      That is not buying, nor is it ownership.

      • Blackmist@feddit.ukEnglish
        3 hours

        I mean that’s fair, an actual subscription is different to buying. Nobody is suggesting you “own” the games you get with PS Plus Premium, or the movies you watch on Netflix.

        But if I buy a movie on Amazon Video for £9.99, it should be mine. And when I’m bored of it, or find myself suddenly owing £10,000 to a local gangster due to a hilarious mix-up during a backstreet game of high-stakes poker, I should be able to sell it on to somebody else like I can with a disc.

    • masterspace@lemmy.caEnglish
      24 hours

      Pirating is not and never has been stealing. You do not deprive anyone of anything when you make a copy of something.

      Copyright is a dumb as shit system of artificial scarcity and always has been.

      • yeehaw@lemmy.caEnglish
        23 hours

        Its kinda true. I like to think of gog and gog-games. One is a storefront. One is a clean ui with all the games downloadable for free.

        I think many would still use the free one vs paid. Myself, there’s something about owning it.

        I pirated doom eternal back in the day. I was enjoying it so much I just bought it instead. 🤷

        I get what you’re saying with “copying” vs “stealing”, which is true. But if you could clone your friends car for free you don’t need to buy a car and the business loses a sale.

        • masterspace@lemmy.caEnglish
          22 hours

          The business loses a sale of what though? A copy they never created or had possession of in the first place?

          If I go home and build a PC, can Dell claim that I deprived them of a sale of a copy of one of their computers?

        • Druid@lemmy.zipEnglish
          15 hours

          So sad that gog-games will be shutting down soon. Are there any plans for forks?

    • 4am@lemmy.zipEnglish
      22 hours

      That’s the other part of it. How will you pirate when they no longer sell hardware to us?

      Their whole idea is for the production of technology to be exclusive to them and their “AI” datacenters. Besides being used to spy on us and everything we do, think, create, and opine - they will force us into walled gardens on locked down tablets and we will use their software they way they intend for the time they allow us, only.

      It’s a prison.

      • Fredselfish@lemmy.worldEnglish
        22 hours

        No worries we will always have the hardware. It may not look shiny or new, but we can go to scrape yards and another places to find what we need. And we will build our internet. It be true cyberpunk. Hell with 2 dollar saw blade I can gather some materials needed.

  • rose56@lemmy.zipEnglish
    17 hours

    I do! I own CDs and vinyls. I collect mainly CDs because they are smaller and need less storage.

    • Druid@lemmy.zipEnglish
      15 hours

      Do you just collect the CDs or do you also play them with a CD player? I feel like it’s not even worth the hassle of getting a system set up to play CDs compared to a record player because the quality won’t be as good.

      I’ve got a good couple dozen of CDs I bought over the years when I hadn’t used Spotify yet - moved to self-hosting now - and I was always wondering if I should work on actually playing CDs instead of just burning them

      • rose56@lemmy.zipEnglish
        4 hours

        I listen to them on a Sony discman! At the moment I have an old computer speakers with subwoofer, and I don’t care much for the quality. I also use iems which is much better.
        The thing I adore is that I pop any cd I like and start cooking without ads. It can be jazz, a funky house cd mix, pop and goes on.
        I also have like the feeling of finding hidden gems in record stores. I will spend 2 hours there, searching, doing previews on my phone and then rush home to spin them.\

        • Druid@lemmy.zipEnglish
          3 hours

          That’s really cool, and I love that you found a new way to enjoy music.

          In my case, I just have the CDs in a shelf and don’t ever touch them anymore which is kinda sad. Been thinking about getting a disc drive to digitise the CDs and put the music on my server, but I can get music digitally anyway, so what’s the point is what I’m thinking.

          A disc man sounds cool in theory, but in practise I’m not sure I’d like the hassle of changing CDs and using wired headphones. How long did it take you to adjust?

          • rose56@lemmy.zipEnglish
            2 hours

            Just to clarify some things: Since Spotify blocked cracked apps, my main goal was to have free music along with my CD collection(which grows slowly). So now days, one day it could be couple CD’s, and the other music from the internet Youtube(FreeTube and NewPiPe), BandCamp, SoundCloud and Qobuz(wink wink). I listen my CD’s at home(sometimes when I commute to work), outside I use my smartphones, which they have MP3’s and HiFi flacc files.
            It didn’t took me long, maybe couple months until my collection did actually grow and I would actually listen more frequently.

            Also regarding hassle changing, it’s less hassle than changing a vinyl! and it has more music in it. 1 hour+.

            I would suggest try and see what works best for you! There is nothing wrong ripping and storing them, many people do it. If you end buying a cd player, you could only spin on weekends. It’s up to you! I’m just a romantic guy who likes do stuff the old way, because I don’t really fit on the new world lol.

            • Druid@lemmy.zipEnglish
              1 hour

              Thanks for the detailed write-up and the “Qobuz” link - hadn’t heard of that before. Looking forward to them adding API access so I can add the site as an app to my server more easily.

              Also I imagine it’s really cool to have that, literal, physical connection to your music. Makes it more tangible and more substantial since you curate what you listen to more so than just via downloads.

              I’ll think about what I’ll do with my CDs!

      • AbsoluteAggressor@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        15 hours

        Beyond the “experience”. If you rip the CD into something lossless, it should be audibly the same. Vinyl versus CD. People claim “warmth” difference.

  • yeehaw@lemmy.caEnglish
    23 hours

    Only way I feel I can push back is by also saving it locally 🏴‍☠️

  • TomMasz@piefed.socialEnglish
    23 hours

    I have no fear that Amazon will come to my house and remove the books I bought. If they were DRMed ebooks, on the other hand, that would be something to worry about.

    • GreenBeard@lemmy.caEnglish
      20 hours

      I was always more angry about them editing digital publications after the fact. That’s some Grade A “Ministry of Truth” BS right there. Dead Tree Media forever.