alt Hacker NewsBecause that's what ownership is. The owner of something has complete decision power over that thing, not anyone else. That might leave him with some liability depending on what he does, but that's his prerogative.
Because that's what ownership is. The owner of something has complete decision power over that thing, not anyone else. That might leave him with some liability depending on what he does, but that's his prerogative.
Ownership is rarely absolute. It can be partial, segmented and with different degrees of control.
Think about music rights ownership - there are mechanical rights, performance rights, sync rights, derivative rights, etc. I'm not defending music industry ownership system, but it shows clearly that binary view of ownership is far from reality.
You own the flat, but you can't remove the wall. You may own the house, but you can't build a factory there due to zoning regulations. You can own electric car, but you can't put diesel fuel there.
I see that main disagreement here is whether phones are "general purpose computers" or not. I have no idea why anyone would call these ultra-packed cameras on steroids a "general purpose computer". Framed like this, this is a debate about OP demanding private companies to transform their product into something very different and urging governments to step in. And the thing is those products exists – Libreum 5, Ubuntu Phone or PinePhone phones, or already mentioned Maemo/MeeGo phones (N900/N9/N950). If they were a better product on the market, we would have them everywhere, but industry and market decided otherwise (PinePhone was discontinued just couple of weeks ago, sadly).