If buying isn’t owning, piracy isn’t stealing

Cory Doctorow argues that when companies can remotely and irreversibly downgrade products people have paid for, buying stops meaning ownership, and that the blame lies with the firms that design such features. He recalls telling Chris Anderson in 2004 that Wired should warn readers that DRM-encumbered device features could be revoked without notice, and he cites Adobe's loss of its Pantone deal in 2022, which turned colors in users' existing artwork black unless they paid a monthly fee. He also describes Warner removing TV shows that PlayStation owners had bought, with no refunds, after it ended its deal with Sony's store.