🌱 Digital ownership
Objective
Examine what ownership actually means in digital contexts — where the line sits between access and ownership, how companies have gradually eroded that distinction, and what technical and legal models could restore genuine ownership of digital goods.
Why this topic
Paying real money for something digital that can be edited, updated, or removed without consent breaks a fundamental social contract. Amazon editing purchased books, Kindle adding ads, Netflix removing content, software forcing updates with no rollback — these are not edge cases. They are the model. The "buying" framing is deceptive.
Working thesis
Digital ownership started as a genuine model but has been gradually and deliberately eroded by companies to serve their own interests. The shift from ownership to access has been disguised by familiar purchasing language — buy, own, library — while the underlying rights have been quietly stripped away. Software updates and platform control mean the thing you paid for is never truly fixed or yours.
Current stage
Fresh. Strong personal conviction, no formal reading yet.
Key tensions
Software updates are often genuinely beneficial — security patches, bug fixes, accessibility improvements. The problem is not updates themselves but the absence of consent and the impossibility of opting out without going offline entirely. Also: physical ownership has its own limitations — things break, get lost, deteriorate. Is the digital ownership problem fundamentally different, or is it the deceptive framing that is the real issue?
Open questions
- What is the legal and philosophical definition of ownership, and how does it apply to digital goods?
- How can ownership of digital assets be proven and enforced?
- Is going offline the only current way to stop receiving unwanted updates?
- What are the legal precedents around companies modifying purchased digital goods?
- What is currently being built — technically and legally — to restore genuine digital ownership?
Connections
you don't own any media -> netflix vs buying dvd way back when
- personalisation isn't shareable -> yeah you get custom movie covers... so what
- recommendations do not accurately reflect what the person wants -> netflix, still scrolling to find what i want to watch -> potential for AI? but even when im scrolling idrk what movie i want to watch
- potentially side topic -> what makes media so enticing that i have to watch it e.g. going to cinema on release day