To buy no longer means anything :( - eviltoast

I’ve just watched the video. I find it pretty outrageous. The word about it should spread.

  • just another dev@lemmy.my-box.dev
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    arrow-down
    42
    ·
    edit-2
    8 months ago

    Piracy is piracy.

    But the only one that owns Minecraft is Microsoft, since they bought it for over 2 billion dollars. Everyone else just bought a license to use it. Just like in all the other cases of buying music, video, or software. Unless lots of lawyers were involved, you only bought permission to use it, in a certain way at that. Pretending otherwise or not knowing in the first place has never been a legal excuse.

    • astronaut_sloth@mander.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      26
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      8 months ago

      You’re getting downvoted, but you’re right. And that is the reason that using proprietary software and SaaS is a problem. If I’m only buying the right to use a copy of something as a company sees fit, then I’m not really buying anything. I’m essentially paying a company a tribute to use their software in their way.

      Decades ago, it was the same way, but it felt different. We got physical media, and we could do what we wished with the files: modify them, delete them, etc. Hell, the EULAs for some '90s and early '00s software even said you could use the software in perpetuity, and we could use software in anyway we saw fit. The biggest constraint was on selling copies. Back then, and even now, that seems pretty reasonable. (Though, as an aside, it would have been better to also get access to the source code, but I digress.)

      Now, we have to use company’s software exactly how they want us to use it. Personally, I refuse to go along with this (as much as I can), so I have migrated most of my digital life to FLOSS.

      • just another dev@lemmy.my-box.dev
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        8 months ago

        Joke’s on them, my instance doesn’t allow downvotes, so my comment is happily at +9 from where I’m standing ;)

        Ain’t got no time to worry about popular opinions.

    • smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      8 months ago

      Yes, BUT…

      There is buying a licence to use.
      And there is buying a copy you can use.

      This is very much different. Maybe buying a copy of music with a tag attached saying you cannot distribute it further is ok, but saying they can take this copy you bought at any time and make terms how you can use it is another level.

    • tabular@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      8 months ago

      Some video games are open source; you can modify and redistribute it or even sell it. We need more of those and less fat cats playing a trading card game of copyrights while they erode ownership rights.

      • just another dev@lemmy.my-box.dev
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        8 months ago

        I’m sure there are exceptions if you’ll look hard enough. However, even in the case of most open source software, you’ll never become the owner of the intellectual property, you’re just free to use, modify and share it.

        • tabular@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          8 months ago

          We don’t own the patients to our hardware but we still say we own an item becauee we are in control of it. Users don’t need the copyright of software they use to control it - to modify and share software is to own it.

          (The only thing they may lack is the option to relicense the software if it’s copyleft, but I’d argue that ensures software freedom for 3rd parties).

          • just another dev@lemmy.my-box.dev
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            8 months ago

            but we still say we own an item becauee we are in control of it.

            Yeah, that’s where misconceptions like the one in this thread stem from. Repeat a lie enough, and you’ll start believing it.

            • tabular@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              8 months ago

              Two people can speak the same language in name and yet the same word can mean something different to them. Words do not have innate definitions, they have usages.

              In my possession are many things which I presume have copyright/patent and fewer things which do not. It seems to me we just draw the line of “ownership” around different things.