Napster: A New Killer Internet App (1999)

Re:Napster: A New Killer Internet App (1999) by norealidea on Wednesday January 30, 2019 @08:46AM (#19034948)

Digital "ownership" is just as temporary, and when "buying" digital products online (or, technically, even physical copies of media), you're only paying for a license that can be revoked at any point. Just because they don't hunt you down doesn't mean you properly own something.

There's a reason SaaS took off, just like media streaming took off. Convenience is higher on the list of priorities than ownership. If they take my stuff away, I'll just switch to media that isn't barred from public use.

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Re:Napster: A New Killer Internet App (1999) by TeMPOraL on Wednesday January 30, 2019 @09:50AM (#19035424)

> If they take my stuff away, I'll just switch to media that isn't barred from public use.

That's if you treat your media/services as substitutable goods. I don't understand this view. For me, the vast majority of books, songs, movies and games I peruse are not substitutable. SaaS services maybe - but then, they do their damnest to be not substitutable - that's called "having a competitive advantage".

So when a company decides to stop serving some media I used (or paid for directly), I see something of value being lost.

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Re:Napster: A New Killer Internet App (1999) by general8bitso on Wednesday January 30, 2019 @10:01AM (#19035526)

Exactly this.

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Re:Napster: A New Killer Internet App (1999) by UncleMeat on Wednesday January 30, 2019 @11:22AM (#19036378)

If my concern is losing access to my music, a hard disk failure is more likely than getting banned from Spotify.

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