• SorteKanin@feddit.dk
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    4 months ago

    If I have the files on my own hard drive with no DRM or control on when or how I can play the game, how can you say I don’t own it? What would be the difference between “licensing” and “owning”?

    • Skull giver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl
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      4 months ago

      Having something and owning something are very different things, otherwise car rentals would be a lot more expensive :)

      In my opinion, you don’t own something if you’re not allowed to sell it, lend it out to friends, or give it away for free. With almost all digital files, doing most of those things will constitute piracy. All the second hand ebook stores I know of have been killed in court because digital ownership

      DRM free files are probably the closest thing to ownership over files (except maybe for NFT grifts), but true ownership of virtual items is almost never sold. Virtual items don’t really exist, all they are is the material they describe, which consists almost entirely of IP.

      This is also why piracy isn’t prosecuted as theft (though the media cartel likes to pretend it is), because piracy is IP infringement above anything else.

      • SorteKanin@feddit.dk
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        4 months ago

        I can see where you’re coming from - if I sell or give away my copy of the game (like literally I delete my copy and send another copy to someone else), I suppose that isn’t really seen like that from a law perspective? I guess because there’s almost no way to verify that I deleted my copy. I still feel like we should be able to own stuff like that.