If the content is not stored locally and DRM free, then you don't own it. Don't pay for content that you can't own. π΄ββ οΈ
this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2023
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Is there any platform or medium where I can buy locally stored and DRM-free software? Even if I buy a game on disc I am fucked, cause most games need updates. I can only name GOG.
Given the recent controversy, it calls into question the definition of the word 'buy.'
GOG is the only one that I know of too.
itch.io is fantastic. Mostly indie stuff with some bigger name stuff, but it's by far the best out there for devs.
Buy the disc, put it on a shelf and download a clean copy.
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Uh, that's practically all software and games these days.
In this case Sony is taking away TV shows that people purchased. They can be purchased on physical media that will be playable as long as you have the disc. The DRM on DVD and Bluray discs can be easily removed to make backups that will play on anything forever.
As for games, everything on GOG is DRM free. They have downloads for the installers so you can keep a backup copy to install decades from now even if GOG is long gone by then.
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What I love about this whole thing is that it's not just Sony's fault but they're getting all the blame because WB would pull all their future content if Sony bad-mouthed them.
Sony choose to not offer refunds. Sony knew the contract when they agreed to sell the content. When something gets pulled from steam I can still download and install it.
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They've done this to me. When it first came out,I bought the fallout 4 DLCs. I cleared my email one time and deleted all those old purchase receipts.
One day last year, I pop in fallout 4 and go to my file, and it says that I don't have the dlc that corresponds to this save file. I know I bought them, so I go to the psn to redownload, but it's asking me to pay. Long story short, I call Sony, my dlc purchase vanished at some point, and since I deleted the receipt, Sony refused to give me the content or money. They say I can't prove I owned it, even though my files say so.
Anecdotal, I had the same with EA. When Origin first launched, the two games I had in my EA account disappeared. Do amount of battling with their support got me anywhere, even though I had the retail copies and the serial keys.
Got to the point where I gave up. Rather play games I actually wanted to play, to than Spore and The Sims 3.
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I'm just shocked how many commenters here somehow seem to think that Sony can choose for their own profit to engage in contracts with mismatched responsabilities - i.e. a short-term contract with WB right next to a much longer term responsability towards retail customer - and not be financially responsible towards their retail customers at one end for the losses that arose from the termination of the very Contract Sony chose to sign at the opposite end.
Imagine if you hire somebody to build you a garden shed and they paid some fly-by-night company for the wood because they were cheaper and that company just to took off with the money. You think they could just legally turn to you, their customer, and say "sorry, we chose some fishy guys for the wood for your shed and they took the money and didnt gave us the wood, so now we'll keep your money and you're not going to get your shed. Bye bye!".
Contract Law isolates Contractual responsabilities in any one contract (including the implied contract of a Retail Sale) to the parties in that contract alone exactly because long term contractual commitments would be de facto impossible in a world were every purchaser also ran risks on every one of their supplier's own contracts as purchasers, in turn having the risks of their suppliers' suppliers' and so on as deep as the chain went.
Reminder that the largest brands regularly and shamelessly steal from small independent artists to sell for profit, knowing that the artists don't have the resources to do anything about it: https://web.archive.org/web/20230726050616/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/01/arts/design/digital-art-copyright-marvel-panini-wizards.html
And these are the companies trying to convince you that pirating big name media for your own personal use is theft.
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Kinda slightly sensationalist title but yep...
We are having a good discussion about this in AskLemmy: https://lemmy.nz/post/3983363
"What is the legal difference between owning digital and physical media?"
As a side note, how are we going with instance agnostic post IDs? I can only post a link that uses my home instance, but obviously most of you won't be on lemmy.nz and will have to do some fuckery to open that in your home instance if you want to be able to comment.
Fortunately Sync just redirects to a link on my home instance. I know I saw a GH issue on what you mentioned but I haven't checked it in a couple of months.
Edit: found it. Still in discussion phase. https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/2987
Ah thanks, we're still waiting.
Reminds me I should check in on the merged communities process. Federation at the community level instead of/also at the instance level would be awesome.
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Sony is one of the vilest corporations out there.
Fuckers literally installed rootkits on customers' computers (across the board, you listen to a CD on your computer- bam) to police DRM.
Check "Sony Rootkit Scandal", they got caught and were sued... yet here we are. Again.
Just feel like I should at least add two more things here:
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Storing information do their customers as plaintext data, then getting hacked and losing all that information (infamous PSN hack);
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Releasing a portable console that cost between 250 and 300β¬, promising support for it then 2 years in, give up on it, never officially tell customers, but have one of your higher execs tell the press said console is a great "accessory" for the PS4.
This is why I don't personally buy Sony hardware.
The Vitaβs failure is really weird when you consider that they had already produced a successful portable system that had years of support, the PSP.
The only thing I can think of is that they were refocusing their games division around the PS4 to reclaim their space in the home console area after the disaster that the PS3 was initially taking advantage of the initial failure of the Xbox One.
PS Vita and their owners were just a collateral Sony was absolutely willing to sacrifice.
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Don't forget: Selling the PS3 with Linux support so that they could pay taxes as if it was a PC as well as to justify the high price to consumers. Then removing Linux later through a mandatory update.
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Since we're sharing YouTube videos around, I suggest this video by Jeff Geerling about how to legally own and stream media (Piped link)
In the US, he is still breaking the law ripping discs. It is against the DMCA to circumvent the DRM on the discs. So he is really just pirating by a different means as far as the industry is concerned.
He is far less likely to get caught doing it that way though.
"People's store-bought DVD collections are always copy-protected or DRM-ed. In 2006, the U.S. Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which made it illegal to circumvent DRM (Digital Rights Management) protection on DVDs. This means that it's illegal to create a software program that can bypass DVD DRM protection. Another way of saying it is, the moment you crack DRM to rip the DVD, you've violated the DMCA.
However, the DMCA contains an exception for "fair use." This means that you can legally rip a DVD for personal use, as long as you don't violate any of the other copyright laws. What does this mean in practice? You can rip a DVD for your own personal use, but you can't distribute the ripped file to others. You also can't make a copy of the ripped file for someone else.
So, in a nutshell,Β if you rip DVD's and restrict the copies to your own personal use, you're probably safe."
https://www.videoconverterfactory.com/tips/is-it-legal-to-rip-dvd.html
Yupes.
Their trickery was to make the distribution of "circunvention software" the illegal part, so that common people would be unable to exercise their fair use "rights".
Per that Law "anybody" can legally exercise their "fair use" rights so long as they have the technical expertise to code themselves the software to do so since per the very same Law nobody can distribute said tools.
So the Law de facto makes it illegal for everybody but a fraction of a percent of people who know how to code that specific kind of thing to rip their own DVDs.
In practice the only way to exercise one's fair use "rights" is if somebody else has broken the Law and distributed a tool to allow those who do not have quite a rare set of expertises and lots of time in their hands to code their own tools, to exercise said "right".
This is one of the slimiest Tech-related Laws ever passed.
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βProbablyβ being the operative word there. The MPAA could still sue you into third world poverty to prove a point even if you end up winning the case.
The only reasons they would be aware of this to sue you would be if you or someone else told them. The likelihood of that is pretty much nil unless you do something that is illegal (like selling ripped media), in which case they're more likely to just come after you for that.
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If buying is not owning, then piracy is not stealing.
~~If buying is not owning, then~~ piracy is not stealing.
It's its own, separate thing.
Iβm not saying this isnβt wrong, because I believe it is, but the fact is that if you digitally own anything from video games to music to movies you should understand that it can be taken from you without a momentβs notice. Is it right? Hell no! Will it continue to happen? Hell yes!
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An Odysee link in the wild! Awesome! Lol
Yep! I prefer not to use products by companies that hate me so I mostly avoid YouTube and other similar platforms.
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That's why streaming is the new cable TV.
I think streaming is fine - if a show is removed or the service dies you haven't lost content because you never owned any in the first place and never expected to.
I really don't know why anyone buys from the likes of Apple, Google, Amazon, Sony etc. People don't own the content, they own a license which lasts as long as the service or the rights to the content and then it's gone.
The problem here is people didn't buy content. They've bought a license to view content and somewhere in the smallprint is Sony's right to revoke the right whenever they like for whatever reason. Other services have done likewise, either withdrawing content or just failing altogether.
So first off, as a consumer stop buying DRM'd shit because it won't end well under any circumstances. Second, lobby for digital property to have rights akin to physical property so the right to destroy, lend, sell, or donate it is inherent to a purchase. e.g. maybe a purchase gives you a token and a signed / watermarked file in a playable format. And incentivize providers to sell digital property by taxing services that impose DRM to create a favourable price disparity.
No, what you describe is called "Rent" or "Lease". People who press a "Buy" button and buy something, expect to own it. Words have a meaning, and trying to wiggle around this with fine print should be considered fraudulent.
People are buying something - a revocable license to view content through the service. Look at the T&Cs of any of these services and it'll say as much within that wall of text.
Hence why I advocate for digital property, a token of ownership and rights that go with it.
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Ok then, I'm gonna start stealing Spiderman 2 and sell it to people for, like, $20, and not take it back.
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