alt Hacker NewsI think what upsets me the most isn't that companies do this, it's that no government seems to have any interest in stopping them.
To me, it should be a fairly easy, short, and extremely popular law that if you say you are 'selling' someone something, with a time-frame extremely clearly specified in a simple way, at least the same size as the price (say), you can't take it back later without giving a full refund. If they want to offer a multi-year rent, call it rent.
The US Government - the de facto licensing wing for the Western World - enables it as it positively impacts the US balance of trade in the exploitation of copyrighted works.
So long as lobbying by the Disney Corporation and others is allowed, the concept of the Public Domain is vilified to the point of felony; whereas the likes of Eldred v Ashcroft call it out for what it is - corporate welfare at the expense of public utility.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldred_v._Ashcroft