7,500 Online Shoppers Unknowingly Sold Their Souls

Obligatory xkcd comic: http://xkcd.com/501/

Most people would take this as a simple joke, but I think there's far more to it. Not the idea of 'soul ownership', but the fact that there exist essentially NO consumer protections whatsoever when it comes to these "digital licenses" that the gaming industry is increasingly using. With these licenses, gamers are stripped of nearly every single right they would retain if they had bought the game in retail form. It would be illegal in most countries for the sellers of any retail product to restrict the rights of the consumer in the way that game companies do to gamers. No seller can forbid you from selling the product you buy to someone else. With game licenses, they do. No seller can forbid you from using the product and then giving it to a friend. With game licenses, they do. No seller can forbid you from allowing a friend to borrow the item. With game licenses, they do. The list goes on, and is quite long.

As more and more transactions take place involving 'licenses' instead of transfer of traditional goods, we are losing a tremendous amount of freedom with how we interact with and use our purchases. I think it would be a good idea for people to start standing up and talking to their representatives about the need for consumer protection laws in the arena of digital licenses. The way it is going, we'll only end up with such things if the companies end up crossing the line and doing something entirely legal that would infuriate the general public to a great degree, such as Apple locking every iTunes customer out of music they already bought a license for until they paid another $1 per track to re-purchase access to it. That would be completely legal and within their rights, and the consumers would have no legal grounds to comaplin at all. They signed away their rights. In EVERY other area of commerce, there are laws preventing consumers from even being capable of signing away such rights, and preventing sellers from exploiting their customers in such ways. Not digital media, though. There are no protections at all when it comes to 'licenses.'

Maybe, but your submission, 2 hours later, has got twice the karma but half the comments. Go figure. It's all random.