The Brave New World of "Ownership"

In the old days, you bought something, you owned it. You could eat it, tear it up, give it away, sell it, or anything else you felt like doing.

In the Brave New World of "digital rights", you get to "buy" something but you don't "own" it. The corporation instead has sold you a "right" to use the eletronic good so long as it pleases them to extend to you this right.

First, from BoingBoing, an example of how you guy something and wake up the next day to discover that the vendor has snuck in and "taken back" what they sold you!

People who bought Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm for their Kindle were surprised to discover that it had disappeared from their devices overnight. It turns out the publisher changed its mind about offering an electronic version, and Amazon caved into their demand to sneak into people's electronic libraries and take back the book at the publisher's request.

This is ugly for all kinds of reasons. Amazon says that this sort of thing is “rare,” but that it can happen at all is unsettling; we’ve been taught to believe that e-books are, you know, just like books, only better. Already, we’ve learned that they’re not really like books, in that once we’re finished reading them, we can’t resell or even donate them. But now we learn that all sales may not even be final.

As one of my readers noted, it’s like Barnes & Noble sneaking into our homes in the middle of the night, taking some books that we’ve been reading off our nightstands, and leaving us a check on the coffee table.

Here's an older example. You buy something and are happily using it until one day you find that what you "own" doesn't work because the vendor shut down a server. You legally own the item, but the "digital rights management" won't let you use it unless it can check with the vendor's server that you are the verified owner. The vendor, however, has decided that the service isn't profitable enough, so they shut down the server. You "own" the item, but the vendor no longer "supports" you so you effectively own nothing:

Customers who have purchased music from Microsoft's now-defunct MSN Music store are now facing a decision they never anticipated making: commit to which computers (and OS) they want to authorize forever, or give up access to the music they paid for. Why? Because Microsoft has decided that it's done supporting the service and will be turning off the MSN Music license servers by the end of this summer.

MSN Entertainment and Video Services general manager Rob Bennett sent out an e-mail this afternoon to customers, advising them to make any and all authorizations or deauthorizations before August 31. "As of August 31, 2008, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers," reads the e-mail seen by Ars. "You will need to obtain a license key for each of your songs downloaded from MSN Music on any new computer, and you must do so before August 31, 2008. If you attempt to transfer your songs to additional computers after August 31, 2008, those songs will not successfully play."

Update 2009jul20: Here's a way to put it in rhyme...

Have you noticed your e-book list dwindle?
You're probably using a Kindle.
A book that you bought
Has turned into naught --
Replaced with a refund. No swindle?

Yet the seller invaded your house.
And did it by clicking a mouse.
Something's there. Then it's not.
(An Orwellian plot?)
You're surely entitled to grouse.

From the Mad Kane site.