They don't make it that transparent. They'll say "read the terms of service, you're only getting a license!" but UIs are plastered with the words "buy", "purchase", etc underneath the title of a movie just as they would be for a physical copy.
Ask anyone off the street what they're buying when they click that button and they'll say "a movie", not "a license to stream a digital copy of this movie for as long as they let me".
>but UIs are plastered with the words "buy", "purchase", etc underneath the title of a movie just as they would be for a physical copy.
1. This argument could have worked if digital stores were a new thing, but at this point everybody knows that when you "buy"/"purchase" something digitally, you're not afforded the same rights as buying a physical object. Therefore the argument that consumers are somehow being deceived doesn't really hold water.
2. What about other stuff you "buy" that you can't transfer? I'm pretty sure you can't transfer air fares or a costco membership, but I don't see people complaining that airlines or costco that they're somehow misleading consumers by their choice of verbs.
> but at this point everybody knows that when you "buy"/"purchase" something digitally, you're not afforded the same rights as buying a physical object.
I do not think that is the case. I do not believe that even a majority of people know that. I also think that it comes across as ignorant to generalize like this.
Everyone is distinct and like everything else, their knowledge will differ between them. If someone does not work in the tech industry, they most likely would not be aware of subtle differences in rules surrounding Intellectual Property especially as it intersects with digital vs physical goods. It simply does not matter to most people until it does.
Right to repair has become an issue, not because it is morally wrong or anything, but because farmers were seeing the difference not only in their bank accounts, but also in their crop yields because they were not able to simply repair a tractor and instead had to arrange for repairs which could include shipping the tractor somewhere which is expensive.
Similar issues have cropped up around not being able to have your car repaired unless you go to a specific repair shop and pay exorbitant prices for the repair.
Also, similar issues were cropping up around phone repairs specifically having the screen or battery replaced which are very common repairs.
None of these industries have tried to make it easier to repair their products. Nor have they tried to make replacement parts more readily available. Nor did they try to notify their customer base about it before the purchase. These are things that unless you have read their terms of service (with these concerns in mind) you would likely not know about them until you were trying to have the repair done.
Having people do things for you has become very expensive. I bought tires for my truck last year and had some other service done at the same time. Cost a bloody nickle and dime fortune. The tech forgot to secure a strut mount and they failed to sell me new tpms monitors that you must replace to get new valve stems. Never again.
It's plain to me why people are buying tire mounting equipment from harbor freight now.
I can justify a $600 wall mount strut compressor now.
Been watching engine teardowns to catch up on automotive tech (haven't been paying attention for about ten years). OMG...you would not believe how complex this shit is now. Ford is shipping engines in the F-150 that have a wet oil pump drive belt. It starts coming apart before 100k. It takes at least $2000 in labor just to get to it. Auto shops charge about the same rates per hour as my senior developer contracting firm.
Their priorities are MPG, power, with the least amount of weight possible and they are really pushing the engineering to get there. No one is going to replace that oil pump belt before it fails and takes the engine with it.
Saw a teardown of the Nissan Titan engine. Jaw dropping reliability where engineers were clearly in charge of the design. They are dropping the truck line after this year. It can't compete with Ford's MPG+power. Chevy is following Ford fast and Stellantis is dropping ICE (expect to see this reversed with Ford leading everyone to hybrid). The electric trucks are not going to make the cut (too heavy and the charging infra is a joke). Tesla Cybertruck is dead on delivery as are the F-150 Lightnings. At best they are personal vehicles for commuting.
Today's auto mechanics are no longer the high-school drop-outs turning a wrench. They're mechanical engineering graduates. They typically know software and hardware.
This is also how you know we're at the end days for ICE vehicles. They're too complex and yet are only 25% as efficient as an EV vehicle. When people start getting the bill for today's vehicles they're going to consider an EV.
People all worried about a $10K battery replacement. Pffft! It doesn't take too many trips to the shop these days to hit that kind of money! Heck, I was recently watching on Engineering Explained where a brake job on a Porsche, now granted that's a higher-end car, but still, it was $2,500. For a brake job! I bought a 2003 Lexus LS430 a few years back (steal deal!) but one of the drawbacks is it's the V8 and changing the starter is $1,500 because they have to drop the engine.
I figure getting a new battery is akin to getting a new engine and $10,000 starts looking like it's really not a bad deal...
Reminds me of my own SAAB story. My first car was a used SAAB 900S, which I bought from a dealer. Luckily, I had also purchased a warranty.
SAABs had a quirky design where the ignition was set in the space between the front seats, on the floor. The ring gear in the starter motor got stripped, and they had to drop the transmission to get to it. That was a $9000 repair in the late 80s. I only had to pay the deductible, which was $100.
I did a $5000 brake job on a range Rover in 2000. The way people let things go I can easily see $2000 going up in smoke with one visit to the shop. EVs are not going to work out unless we double battery capacity and half the weight and charge times.
They will definitely work out when even a minor engine failure on the average new ICE car being sold in 2033 costs over $10k to repair and even the cheapest garages are billing $300 per hour to work on such complicated machinery.
Which seems to be the trajectory every automaker is going down to meet fuel mileage requirements.
>I do not think that is the case. I do not believe that even a majority of people know that. I also think that it comes across as ignorant to generalize like this.
And I think it's pretty patronizing to think that people are too dumb to realize that their digital products are not transferable. Even kids realize their fortnite skins aren't transferable, or that they can't "lend" their friend their copy of minecraft (without sharing the account).
>Also, similar issues were cropping up around phone repairs specifically having the screen or battery replaced which are very common repairs.
>None of these industries have tried to make it easier to repair their products. Nor have they tried to make replacement parts more readily available. Nor did they try to notify their customer base about it before the purchase. These are things that unless you have read their terms of service (with these concerns in mind) you would likely not know about them until you were trying to have the repair done.
I think this example is illustrative how people know but don't care. Hard to repair phones have been around for a almost decade now? Based on a quick search, Samsung Galaxy S5 (released early 2014) was the first phone from Samsung that had non user serviceable batteries. iPhones had non-user replaceable batteries for years prior. Unless you've never had to repair your phones before, and you've never heard of your friends/collegues replacing their phone, I think it's very unlikely that "you would likely not know about them until you were trying to have the repair done". There are still phones with replaceable batteries today, but they're relegated to niche status. What does this tell us? I say it's that most consumers give repairability lip service. They might be in favor of it in the abstract, but will cave the moment there's any trade-off involved, like waterproofing, thickness, or pricing.
Ask anyone off the street what they're buying when they click that button and they'll say "a movie", not "a license to stream a digital copy of this movie for as long as they let me".