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Comment by hayksaakian | Hacker News Reader

Buying (a license)?

Licenses are not goods! For example, many licenses are nontransferable. DRM for one!

And buying is not a term exclusive to transferable goods!

    buy  
    /bī/
    Verb
    Obtain in exchange for payment

You can obtain a non-transferable license in exchange for payment. You can buy a non-transferable license.

Would you like to buy (a picture of) my car?

For a mere 60 dollars? Sold.

I don't have a car, but if you are willing to pay $60 per picture, I will be able to (legally) source pictures of neighbours' cars for you.

By paying for the picture, you agree that the picture is for your own use only. You can't show it to anyone else. You can't sell it to anyone else. You can't do anything with it but look at it, and only when you're alone.

And you don't get told that until after you've paid for it.

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