Do you actually own anything digital?

Well, I have 10 Tb of pirated digital content sitting safely at my own home, so I would say yes, yes I do own a lot of digital stuff.

If it's on my Jellyfin server, I own it as much it's possible to own anything.

If they wanted me to pay for it, maybe they shouldn't have dicked me around, watering down my subscribed services while simultaneously jacking up the price.

Yes, because I go out of my way to make damn sure of it.

Can it be taken from you, at any time, for any reason or no reason at all?

If yes, then you don't own it.

i do if i stole it

If I can actually download it and it's DRM-free, yes.

I think I own my fingers, so them.

GOG, buy music in mp3/flac format, not sure about video. I guess you can pay for subscription and just pirate stuff you like to keep real ownership.

If you're on Lemmy, you almost certainly understand the problem and know how to acturally own digital stuff.

The problem is all the normies who can't even see the problem. We need everyone to be protected by law and it all to be citizen oriented. As the moment, it's all stacked in favour of exploitive multinational companies. Maybe ever was it so, but we need to fight that.

We treat it as a tech problem, something to work round, but it's a political problem and we need to solve it politically.

Aye, I be ownin' it all, mateys!

Like Doctorow said, if you cant own it you can't steal it.

Possession is 9/10ths of the law, so I 90% own a whole lot of stuff I pirated while I don't own most things Ive paid money for... Great system guys

It all depends on the licence. Even if you buy something on physical media you may not technically own it. If something has a FOSS licence MIT, BSD, GPL, etc Then yes you do own your copy and no one can change that.

I’ve got a digital watch

No.

We still own all our CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays, so them as long as the players still exist.

No, and once I became aware of the fact realized that I was kinda screwed when it came to video games.

Every single video game I have purchased is on Steam, and considering its DRM and licence business model, I had multiple conversations with my friends who also had the same worry and wondered what would happen if Steam shut down one day. Valve did state that they'll remove the DRM if the platform shut down, but there's no way of knowing the future as million things can happen and for all we know, they might change their minds or not be in a position to remove the DRM once the time came.

I actually wonder if the files you download off Bandcamp have DRM on them or not.

The only "digital" I download, is something that I can put on my personal storage. If I can download it to Nintendo Switch and then move it to USB or SD card, then I can clone the sd card and therefore I own it. (immediate usage might be different, and they may chose to delete if it is put back on the Switch. But I still own it, I just need to find an alternative method to use it).

Same goes with games/movies/whatever. If I can download it and store it on my NAS, I own it.

If you are paying for "digital" but you cannot acquire a copy of it, then it is NOT "Digital" it is streaming. You are paying for the privilege of using some services' electronic library, but you do not own anything on it.

I've been watching this argument lately, and its amusing. The whole Sony thing about Discovery (or whatever it was) has nothing to do with ownership. You were paying to access a library that Sony curated. Sony dropped the contract with the other party, and chose to tidy their library. You just have access to it, because they let you. You do not have any ownership whatsoever, you signed a T&C that says Sony curates the library and they can do what they like.

People seem to have a hard time using words like "content", "streaming" and "digital" vs "electronic copy", "local digital copy" and "DLC"; and then confuse "ownership and "content access".

Not with DRM

I really wish there was some form of individual copyright that could be sold for specific media. I buy a song on itunes - I own a limited license to listen to that song so long as iTunes may serve it. If I was smart enough to download it to my device, then I might hold onto it a few moments longer in spite of Apple losing the copyright and denying me the ability to listen again on devices without the download. Sucks for me right?

What if I could buy a limited copyright? One that is strictly tied to my individual person and that specific media I had purchased. That copyright is nontransferable, but it is platform agnostic. I could then use that legal copyright to view or listen to that media on a streaming or distribution platform of my choosing. I could listen to a song on Spotify, or Pandora, or Apple, or Google, and I only had to buy it once. Those platforms would not need to negotiate copyright access for media, only demonstrate the ability to serve that media and limit access to those with the copyright.

I would HAPPILY buy all of my media for a ... 3rd time? 5th time? God I don't even know how many times I have purchased some of my music. Vinyl, CD, iTunes, streaming services a plenty... a second CD or two from mixes. Yeesh. I'm fucking tired of it. I want to be able to feel as if I had some kind of longer lasting ability to access the media of which I have paid for.

Hell yeah I do.

No. Not unless you have it stored on media that you own and control.

I own a digital watch

You wouldn’t pay to not own a car

Does anyone?

IMO, nobody owns ideas. Only execution.

My fingers

It depends on how you acquired it. Nobody can take the license for your pirated, modded fallout. Literally buy it anywhere but itch.io? You probably don't.

Yes I own things because I simply don't pay for something if I'd need to open proprietary software or a pay a subscription fee to use it.

It's really quite simple and remarkably easy to do, it's just more mental load to decide what to buy and people just want to pay monthly and forget about it and get mad when it stops magically working.

If you own a physical object and it has an internet connection than you don't actually own it.

Oui mes empreintes.

Only if its still there and you can use it entirely when internet goes bye-bye forever

I do.

It's a very complex answer, but in short, no. You don't own anything.

Even if you buy a CD or record you own the medium and the right to reproduce the content, but you don't own the content itself. Hence why it's illegal to make copies or commercially reproduce content. Same thing with electronic devices. You might own the hardware itself, but design of it is copyrighted and software you only get the permission to use.

Do you?

I own lots of content, because I created it myself.

Not with DRM

Not with DRM

I think it depends on the definition of own, if it can be sold to someone else who will then own it. If it doesn't have value like that, then it is just something you have, like pocket lint.

Not with DRM

I don't own my digital media but nobody is taking it away from me 😎👉

Definitely not my car. And if I can help it, it's going to stay that way.

Not with DRM

Why do I need to own them?