When I go out and do some shopping, I take make my time and evaluate if I really need a product or not, when I do finally make up my mind, I spend my money and take my newly purchased product home. It is physically mine and I can use it whenever I like. This changes when you buy online products.
Lets say you buy some virus protection for your laptop, because every computer techie will tell you that you need it to protect your computer, so you pick a program, buy it, and download it onto your computer. You just spent real earth dollars on something you can't physically touch. You know it's there because you can see it on your screen, but you can't go into the program and remove the code to stop the advertising to upgrade your product, most normal people can't if someone wants to argue the point.
How about a video game? You buy that online, download it to your console using real money, but have no physical product, you can play the game at your leisure. What happens when a game is online only? I bought Destiny when it first came out, it is an online only game, meaning that if I had lost internet connection I would not be able to play it at all. Online only games now have moderators that can actually ban you from playing if you are abusing the system or even from swearing online.
My real question is: Do we actually own anything when we purchase it and only have a digital copy?
From virus protection to video games, accounting programs to computer repair, anything we buy online is not actually ours, we have no say to what happens with the program when it expires. We can't sell it to anyone else or give it away, we can't lend it out either and we only have it for a limited time until it need to be updated to continue working properly, which of course is when the company or owner of the program wants more money. They can force you to upgrade by designing new content not to work with the old one, forcing you to upgrade even if you didn't want to.
I may have researched a product and decided to finally purchase it, but in no way Is It Mine.
Scott Goerz
