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California’s new law forces digital stores to admit you’re just licensing content, not buying it (www.theverge.com)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by ampersandrew@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world

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If you don't retain some kind of actual ownership, they will not be allowed to use terms like "buy" or "purchase" on the store page button. I hope there aren't huge holes in this that allow bad actors to get around it, but I certainly loathe the fact that there's no real way to buy a movie or TV show digitally. Not really.

EDIT: On re-reading it, there may be huge holes in it. Like if they just "clearly tell you" how little you're getting when you buy it, they can still say "buy" and "purchase".

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[-] corroded@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago

If you're not receiving physical media, and you're not saving a copy to local storage, then you're not buying anything. You're renting it.

[-] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 36 points 1 month ago

That's not even the best metric. You save Destiny 2 to local storage, but you still don't own that either.

[+] intensely_human@lemm.ee -6 points 1 month ago

You can buy a perpetual license and then you own it (the license) regardless of storage or possession.

[-] L0rdMathias@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 month ago

You can't just go out and buy a perpetual license for any random thing you purchase.

[-] corroded@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

That's great until they decide to stop providing whatever content you licensed.

[-] BaldManGoomba@lemmy.world -1 points 1 month ago

Just because you bought something and never picked it up it isn't the stores fault. If you buy a perpetual license to digital code then never download it then cry when the store stops providing the source or updating it sounds like a you problem. Now a SaaS thing is weird. Like what do i do when I own a license for Helldivers 2 and the service turns off. That is like paying a person a lump sum for a service like trash but it is one person and you expect it to last at least 50 years since that person is young and they die next week. Now you are out the money and the service expecting the service would never end