Grzyb wrote on 2026-05-11, 17:49:

My internet connection can't work without the infrastructure at the ISP's side - it's normal that I need to pay for their SERVIC […]
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My internet connection can't work without the infrastructure at the ISP's side - it's normal that I need to pay for their SERVICE.
Whatever I get via pipelines - water, gas, theoretically even ink - needs some pumping station at the other end. It's normal that I need to pay for their SERVICE.

A bottle of water, a cylinder of gas, a cartridge of ink, a disk of data - they are all PRODUCTS.
They don't need any SERVICES from the outside world - it's normal that I don't pay for any SERVICES.

This is a fair point, your distinction is valid. The carrier-locked phone may be a better analogy.

Or water subscriptions where you pay for a certain monthly amount of bottled mineral water delivered to your home/office.
If you cancel the subscription (on whatever terms) - they will probably take away the equipment, but will they take away the water jug you didn't finish?

These are all different business models. The transition from goods to services is happening in many areas.

I suppose people find it 'easier' to accept with software, because we feel software is less tangible. However, there is a lot backlash against that too.
I don't buy anything on Steam, because I know that they have full control of my games and can block me / lock me out any time.
If I buy digital-only, it's only GOG or other DRM-free alternatives where I get an offline installer that cannot be taken away from me.

I stand by what I said - the practice is not tantamount to fraud, and the X post is misleading.
If one doesn't want to buy "printing as a service", no one is forcing them.
I don't believe it will ever become mandatory. There will always be a market for those who want to do it the "old-fashioned" way, and so there will be companies offering this option. Simple economics.

wierd_w wrote on 2026-05-11, 14:15:

This is one of the many ways society loses when 'eternal profit growth!' Is demanded. […]
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This is one of the many ways society loses when 'eternal profit growth!' Is demanded.

At some point, you'll be charged a subscription fee for access to the atmosphere. 'If you want to breathe, you shouldn't have been born on earth!'

'Regulation kills profits!' Is really just the narrow minded reflex against acceptance of a mutually workable equilibrium economy, with the demand of a fully captured one.

As the suits like to put it, they need 'a realignment of expectations.'

Rather than handing these companies a license to fuck the future, govt *should* be enshrining interoperability law, and restricting the abuse ofbthe DMCA.

I think it is happening because it can, ie computation and comms. I don't see any other arrangement or political set up that w0uldnt have exactly the same dynamic emerging through technology either to the effect of decreasing the fact of owning stuff, or just being details in a political system where people don't own stuff anyway. In a political system where owning stuff is universally enshrined that leaves direct regulation of markets to encourage more owning stuff. I don't see much political activism supporting the idea of owning stuff

Owning things might be a few-generations "blip" in history bought about by industrialised production combined with radical political ideas and now the technology is working the other way, and the political ideas too. we might be watching it slowly slip away