That’s already happened. About a decade ago, Apple added to their TOS that you don’t own any Apple products you buy, you’re merely paying for the service. So they were within their rights to take back the physical hardware anytime they wanted because it was still legally their property.
They used this rule to essentially shut down your iPhone during big Apple press releases; anyone attending the event couldn’t take photos or video from their phone and had no Internet access until they left the venue. They could just remotely take over your device and cripple it just like that, and it was legal because their TOS said it was their property to do with as they please.
Amazon also likes to sell digital services without permanent ownership. You can buy digital books for your Kindle currently, but they reserve the right to delete the digital copy from public access without reimbursing you. If a book becomes controversial and they delete it from their inventory… it’s gone from your library too.
About the only digital service I trust nowadays is Valve’s Steam store. Once you buy a digital video game from them, they consider it your personal copy and you retain access to it indefinitely, even if the game gets removed from their store.
For instance, Rockstar wanted to push their new Grand Theft Auto Trilogy remaster, so they removed all the original Grand Theft Auto games from the store. Of course, the “remaster” was a terrible hack job and everyone wanted to play the original games instead. Anyone who had previously bought them (like me) could still download and install them on any computer they’re logged into. But no one else could buy them anymore.
There was that court case where a guy took Apple to court because a movie he paid for on ITunes was removed from the service. Can’t remember what the outcome was though.
What’s next is you don’t actually own anything, you buy it as a digital product or subscription, but a corporation actually owns it
That’s already happened. About a decade ago, Apple added to their TOS that you don’t own any Apple products you buy, you’re merely paying for the service. So they were within their rights to take back the physical hardware anytime they wanted because it was still legally their property.
They used this rule to essentially shut down your iPhone during big Apple press releases; anyone attending the event couldn’t take photos or video from their phone and had no Internet access until they left the venue. They could just remotely take over your device and cripple it just like that, and it was legal because their TOS said it was their property to do with as they please.
Amazon also likes to sell digital services without permanent ownership. You can buy digital books for your Kindle currently, but they reserve the right to delete the digital copy from public access without reimbursing you. If a book becomes controversial and they delete it from their inventory… it’s gone from your library too.
About the only digital service I trust nowadays is Valve’s Steam store. Once you buy a digital video game from them, they consider it your personal copy and you retain access to it indefinitely, even if the game gets removed from their store.
For instance, Rockstar wanted to push their new Grand Theft Auto Trilogy remaster, so they removed all the original Grand Theft Auto games from the store. Of course, the “remaster” was a terrible hack job and everyone wanted to play the original games instead. Anyone who had previously bought them (like me) could still download and install them on any computer they’re logged into. But no one else could buy them anymore.
There was that court case where a guy took Apple to court because a movie he paid for on ITunes was removed from the service. Can’t remember what the outcome was though.