This is exactly why Richard Stallman created GNU and the GPL. He might seem like an idealist or even an extremist but he's been warning us about this very thing for decades now.
The Right to Read is coming closer each day. Almost nobody cares. It seems like an increasing number of technical people want that future to happen. It fills me with immeasurable sadness. I am having a really hard time coming to terms with the fact that computers aren't "for" me anymore.
I think this is related to techies have given up selling things, and now sell subscriptions, or best of all remotely terminated licenses for “purchase”. If you have a general purpose device, you’ll find all those artificial limitations can just as easily be removed, thus destroying the rent.
All the anti-GPL techies have themselves to thank for.