With the end of physical PlayStation games looming, the need for clear digital ownership rights is more pressing than ever.
For its part, Sony believes your rights are very clear: you do not own your digital games, and it’s unlikely you’re stupid enough to believe otherwise. At least, that’s roughly the argument the company’s lawyers are presenting in response to a proposed class-action lawsuit.
Sony argues that its current customer-facing disclosures ensure that “reasonable consumers would not be misled” into believing they actually own their digital games. That’s according to a Game File report (paid article link) citing an August 21 filing Sony’s lawyers made in California’s Northern District.
I kind of don’t believe in a big “the problem” at least not in a totalizing way, especially if it’s a problem so big people can’t have any impact on it. I feel like there are a thousand of these battlefields, in our personal relationships, working life, civic life, consumer relationships.
I’m not saying tackling your big the problem wouldn’t be a huge help across the board, but we’d still have other problems. Hell maybe some problems are just part of human nature and will be with us forever.
In any case, even if there is one big huge ur-problem from which all problems spread like tentacles we can each only act on an I individual level, so I believe all change starts there—it can’t end there, but there it starts, and from there branches into collective action against the bigger problems in the world.
Does that make sense? I’m not meaning it in a contradictory way. But that negating the importance of individual action can actually disempower people from taking their part in collective action. Like it never gets off the ground because every individual just goes “well I’m just one person, so…”
Everyone pushes that viewpoint. What’s the real choice here? Let’s just look at this individual issue and pretend it’s not connected to a larger problem of our government being endlessly corrupt and complicit in the non-stop caveat emptor that pervades everything. The choice is don’t buy the fun toy while all of your friends do and every time they talk about the fun toy being fun you either relate to them less or actively become the debby downer that lectures everyone about why you didn’t buy the fun toy.
I guess that was even kind of abstract, but if you’re a gamer and are friends with other gamers they will likely buy this game and play it without you. They’ll have fun playing it without you, and you get the great choice of saying “no i haven’t bought that yet” and being vague and missing out, or lecturing them and risk being categorized as a negative nancy.
Either way your individual choice does little to solve the problem, because other individuals individually ignore it. And honestly, owning games is somewhat inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.
You aren’t individually choosing your way out of these things. Other people exist. And unless you’re Elon fucking Musk, your individual preferences will likely not move the needle.
The only real answers are not individual choices and nagging. They’re collectivism and politics. Sorry for the inconvenience but it’s true.
The people opposing you understand this. It’s why Sony is a corporation. It’s why Republicans need megachurches. Collectivism is the only thing that works.
Edit: Look man I’m here on lemmy and never use Reddit. Reddit still exists. My individual choices do not move the needle.