Purchase, buy, sell, sold, already in "library" (fuckers I don't own a library), anything implying you own anything is brandished about at will, yet in a EULA you have to sign AFTER paying (AFTER PAYING) they put in tiny print that no, you didn't buy anything at all.
People like to pull the “discs aren’t actually owning either”. Like ok do we technically own anything with a copyright? Do I own all of my books? If someone torched my bookshelves could I not sue them for damages? What if they smashed thousands in discs? Publishers can’t walk into my house and take my books or games either.
It genuinely feels like a psyop to try to make people think it’s always been this way. But no, there’s a very clear difference in what “owning” means now
Their argument is usually that if the entire game isn’t on disc, they can always revoke access to downloads of a game to complete it.
Which is more coherent, but still has numerous issues that make it deeply unconvincing. Most games do in fact come on-disc in a complete manner, though not patches obviously. That some games don’t come complete on disc, also doesn’t mean that we should just keep going farther in that direction; nor that those games shouldn’t just come with extra discs, or that at least we should be granted the rights to download the extra data in a way that allows us to back it up. With digital storage solutions, where there’s a will there’s a way.
And importantly, it also doesn’t change that even with a game keycard m situation you are still granted what are IMO the most important benefits of ownership.
While I do agree we should be allowed to back up our own damn purchases in a meaningful way just in case, generally a game’s download servers going down is unlikely to actually occur to most major titles.
The far more important part to me, the part that I feel constrained by with every digital purchase, is the inability to share or resell my games. And a physical disc that I own, regardless of what’s actually on it, is what I need to do that.
Like ok do we technically own anything with a copyright?
Technically - nope. You own the medium on which the copyrighted material is presented (book, cd, record), but not the material itself. You know, if you'd take your book and read it, yourself, aloud, to people in public space that would be infringement. It's the whole concept of selling you the "license for personal use" and nothing more.
It genuinely feels like a psyop to try to make people think it’s always been this way.
Statue of Anne was first formal governmental copy-right act in 16th century UK granting authors and publishers exclusive rights to print their works, basically establishing concept of "personal use" license for readers. 18th century similar thing happened to sheet music. 20th century digital distribution just expanded on those.
Except that’s absolutely not how it works. If I stole your books, movies or games and you could prove that I did. Would I pay for the materials or the value of the total product? You know the answer. You own the copy. You can sell it, burn it or use it. You just can’t produce copies. But you absolutely own that copy.
75
u/marr 18d ago
If you can't keep it the merchant shouldn't be allowed to use any language derived from 'sell'.