Like I don’t understand why this even became a thing and who even thought of it?
In: Economics
Im sure it’s all explained in the eula that you scrolled past and pressed accept. Software as service is the new age. They can secure more profit by selling monthly licenses than giving you a product you never have to update and can use for the rest of your life.
Because copying a program takes negligible amounts of energy, so to prop up a whole market they created intellectual property law. It is an empty pillar holding software markets.
People are scratching the surface here but not getting the whole reason. The license is because the owner can do whatever they want with the product, including sell it, or alter it. For art this means they could change a movie to say something really nasty, or use parts of it in their own stuff. Also the license allows an artist to say ‘these people can’t use this at this place no matter what they pay’.
For software it’s more important because altering the product can break things, and then people might act like it’s the original products fault. Someone might even do this on purpose. Or they might take the product, and change it around into something else, and try to sell their new thing, this is not allowed either. Also you are not allowed to use several copies of the same software at once, you have to buy as many as you are using, this is how they make money.
TLDR you get a license instead of ownership because when you ‘buy’ a copy of a product you are only allowed to use it as intended. They can’t tell you what to do with your own stuff but since you’re just using their stuff, they can.
because companies found out with digital versions that they could move to a subscription model and keep sucking money out of their consumers vs a one time ownership purchase
Money – they want more money. Sell once, they get the money, then they get the woman,
However, sell license, then annual renewal, then they get more money and then they get more women…
Imagine you made some toys, your toys
Now imagine I buy one of your toys, now my toy.
Because it’s mine, what’s stopping me from making copies and selling my toys? I could just change a color, material, subtract or add accessories. It will be even better than your toys.
Ownership of the idea or ownership of the specific item? Ownership of the idea comes from the creator and that is their business to sell, lend, or produce more. Ownership of the item is yours to take care of. Don’t lose it or break it because you paid for the item, not the idea.
You can buy a book. You can’t put a new cover on it and sell it as yours. You can buy a transformer truck. You can’t make additional ones out of clay and sell them.
Software is the same idea. You buy access to use the idea, but not ownership of it. Don’t lose the item they give you because that’s the item you paid for. Some sellers are more generous and will let you download new copies if you lose the old one, but that is their choice to offer.
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