Comment by binarymax | Hacker News Reader

Comment by binarymax | Hacker News Reader

> "But owning a game on a disc today isn't really the same thing. It's still just a license..."

Here's the crux of the problem in their own sentence and they don't even realize it.

Owning and Licensing are not the same thing. If I own something, I own it outright. If I license something, I am leasing it.

It does get fuzzy with media, I will admit. But we need the same protections as physical books and game cartidges. If I buy it, it is mine to use as I please and even resell or transfer. If that's not what the transaction is, then don't call it buying or purchasing, call it leasing or licensing.

Require stores and publishers to use language that reflects the nature of the transaction.

The issue with owning discs now is they tend to not even have the full game on them. They either shipped the discs before the game was done so there's something practically unplayable on the disc, or sometimes it's a demo and you have to download the remaining 95% of the game. The one advantage it has over digital for the time being is you can resell it, assuming they didn't lock a bunch of content behind a one-time-use download code in the box.

And this isn't anything new. Mortal Kombat X came out 11 years ago and the disc had 2 characters and a basic tutorial on it. To get the rest of the game you had to download it.

> Require stores and publishers to use language that reflects the nature of the transaction.

After this law is made and they change the word without changing anything else, that won't save the past. They'll probably even market test some nonsense word that won't even make people feel like they're being ripped off.

Owning and licensing is bullshit propaganda they feed you so you'll feel better about not owning, and you lapped it right up. For consumer products there should be no distinction.

The right word for a consumer product is "rent". As in I'll "rent" this game. For $2 every week until I return it.

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