If you “purchase” something, you own it. End of story. Anything less is a rental.
When you pay your landlord, you are not “purchasing a 1-year license to occupy the apartment”, you are renting the apartment. It is not a purchase, it is a rental. If you need to keep paying money to use something, then it is not a purchase, it is a rental. We need a law which makes this distinction 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.
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, and 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.