examples of things that you physically have but can't use due to it being tied to a subscription model (real or imagined)

itt 100 ways you're actually a fucking serf

techno-social

more like techno-capitalist-death-grip

it's not entirely the same thing, but my late friend DJ Di got sued by music licensing companies and it basically put her in debt she never escaped from.

she had legally bought tens of thousands of songs, and I never quite understood what happened, like if ownership changed hands on who held the licenses to specific songs or w/e, but they basically told her "to continue to use these 5,000 songs you already bought, you have to pay us $xxx", and at first she just said "fuck it, any song that's in my book that belongs to this company, you all can't sing", and then they went ahead and sued her anyway. for something like $15,000 or something ridiculous.

she got a settlement in the lower thousands, had to do a GoFundMe to put a dent in it.

Not quite within the purview but owning a Playstation Vita brings with it a similar heartache. I have a ton of games that I purchased for it through the Playstation Store but, since they disabled the Vita's ability to access the store directly, I have to go through a complicated process of accessing the store with my PS3, scrolling through all of my purchases to find a particular game, downloading it to my PS3, and then uploading it to my Vita from my PS3. Suffice to say, I haven't gone through this PITA process more than like twice.

not quite but... comixology purchases

cory doctorow on twitter is good on this stuff imo

somewhat related, though more "backwards steps", is "internet of shit" on twitter

xp
Those are both good examples imo. Well tbh I'm not sure I quite understand what happened to Neando's friend, but the digitization of cultural products was the primary means for them becoming assetized and moved to a rent/subscription model. General IP bullshittery, DRM, software licensing, etc. all early-ish examples of this model. The financial power moved from producing & selling commodities to controlling & renting access to them, and now capital is trying to apply that model to a wild range of things, including public services

rob - I had to dig because it was bugging me that I couldn't remember, but finally found a better explanation from old FB post:

PLEASE SHARE THIS ON FACEBOOK! "If only 600 people donated $10, that would give her a chance to settle this crappy suit and get her back to work. Please donate now. You'll likely forget if you pass this post up...and that helps nobody. It literally takes 3 minutes of your time." PLEASE CONTINUE READING!

Hello friends and family! I don't typically do this, but DjDi Orlando needs some help. Iv'e known her for over 20 years and she is an entertainment staple in the Orlando area. She's a sassy, kind hearted and lovely person that works hard to please everyone. She's DJ'd my 40th "A particular company that produces/distributes karaoke music has agreed to allow bottom feeder law firms to blanket sue karaoke bars, companies that provide karaoke as a business and Karaoke hosts and hostesses. The suit is over something I find absurd.

There is a logo that appears at the end of a karaoke song on the screen/tv. As of 2012, this company filed for trademark of their logo. Now, they are suing everyone that uses digital forms of music (i.e songs on laptops). This is not a suit about music piracy as she has record of all her purchases over the past 3 years and beyond. In many cases, it is cheaper to settle a dispute than go to court, pay attorney fees, etc. Sometimes principal isn't enough to stand on in business. Based on some of the past settlement fees we've seen from other KJ's and businesses running karaoke, it is likely this trolling law firm will take a settlement. So, that being said, with her 600+ friends on Facebook and mine being over 1,000, let's give her a chance to fight this and get her back working and entertaining the Orlando area."

So a tad diff than I thought but... ridiculous

the flipside of this is stuff that you bought and hoped to keep for awhile, but the manufacturer no longer supports it, so you better upgrade/replace or you're SOL

Like my Chromebook

Off-topic, but I've had scanners and digital drawing tablets get bricked because Mac OS gets updated and leaves those appliances in the dust.

For a second here I genuinely thought they were going to make you pay a subscription fee to use any colours at all in photoshop:

Fun times ahead for #Adobe designers. Today, if you open a PSD (even one that's 20 years old) with an obscure PANTONE colour, it will remove the colour and make it black. Pantone want US$21/month for access, and Solid Coated goes behind the paywall in early November. pic.twitter.com/BUxzViYFaQ

— Iain Anderson (@funwithstuff) October 28, 2022

It's still a shitty move but slightly less ridiculous than what my brain conjured up.

Still desperately clinging onto my CS6 suite for as long as humanly possible.

^^^