Below are posts associated with the “alienation of ownership” tag.
hoopla and other apps that make digital books worse than physical ones
I have mixed feelings about the digital library app hoopla—which offers access to ebooks, electronic comics, and other media that my library doesn’t necessarily carry in physical format—but it’s so dang useful that I keep using it despite some hesitations (see this post for some recent complaints). Tonight, though, as I tried to wrap up the introduction to the English translation of Jacques Ellul’s Théologie et technique (which I ought to just buy in French-language physical format, since its publishing house offers 5€ shipping to the U.
🔗 linkblog: Steam Finally Makes It Clear You Don’t Own Your Games'
Look, I like Steam, but it’s still a sucky business model, like so many others today,
🔗 linkblog: Second Circuit Says Libraries Disincentivize Authors To Write Books By Lending Them For Free'
Deeply appreciate Masnick’s writeup. I don’t know the ins and outs of the law, and that’s given me some pause in being upset about the ruling. To see a lawyer find fault with so much gives me greater confidence in my own frustration.
The most dangerous part, though, doesn’t require a law degree to understand. The logic of the findings poses a threat to all libraries, not just this one.
'licensed, not sold, to you'
As I’ve blogged about a couple of times recently, I’m currently reading R. Sikoryak’s Terms and Conditions, a graphic novel adaptation of the 2015 iTunes Terms and Conditions document, which no one ever reads.
I was struck (if not surprised) by something stated explicitly in the document, which appears on p. 59 of Sikoryak’s volume:
The software products made available through the Mac App Store and App Store (collectively, the “App Store Products”) are licensed, not sold, to you.