Words like “purchase” and “buy” must be legally defined as conferring perpetual ownership. Anything less is a rental or a revocable license and should not be described with language that implies ownership where none meaningfully exists.
A “purchase” is when you pay a one-time fee for time-unlimited access to, and control over, a good (like a physical book or an MP3 file). A “rental” is when you either pay a one-time fee for time-limited access to a good (like a movie rental), or a recurring fee for time-unlimited access to a good (like renting an apartment or subscribing to Netflix), and with the seller retaining ultimate control over the good in both rental cases. We need a law which makes this distinction clear.
Digital goods sold in closed ecosystems which prohibit the good from being resold or transferred are not “sold”, they are “rented”, and it should be illegal to use terms like “sell” or “purchase” to describe such digital goods. If, however, those digital goods are made available offline, in a universal format, like an MP3 file or a PDF file, then they are purchases, not rentals.
Software which requires ongoing payments (subscriptions) should be legally required to be labeled as “rentals”. When you pay your landlord, you are not “purchasing a 1-year license to occupy the apartment”, you are renting the apartment. Likewise, Adobe no longer sells its software, it merely rents it out.
We need a law which makes the distinction between “purchasing” and “renting” crystal clear for digital goods and services, just as it is clear for physical goods and services. This law would:
1. Prohibit companies who sell digital goods from using words like “purchase”, “buy”, “acquire”, or “own” to mean anything other than perpetual, non-revocable access to and control over a copy of that digital product in a universal format.
If a company wants to exchange digital goods or services for money, but cannot guarantee perpetual ownership or use of a product (in the form of a digital file like a PDF, MP3, or .exe file, or perpetual access to the digital good or service for the life of the company), then the company should be required to use words like “rent” or “license” or “access” along with adjectives like “revocable” or “temporary” to describe what they are offering. To do anything less is fraud and needs to be made explicitly illegal in the United States.
For example, Adobe currently “sells” their cloud software, but consumers are not actually buying it, they are merely renting it for a monthly fee. We need to force Adobe to use honest language and admit that it is merely a rental, not a purchase.
2. Prohibit companies from using words like “perpetual” and “lifetime” to mean anything other than permanent, non-revocable ownership of or access to a good or service for the lifetime of the company (some companies have redefined “lifetime” to mean “up to 5 years” in their terms of service).
Redefining common words like “lifetime” and “purchase” to mean “as long as we feel like” and “revocable rental” is fraud and needs to be made explicitly illegal in the United States.