> when I buy a copy of a book it is mine for the rest of my life.
Or more correctly, for the rest of *its* life. Leave it outside during a rainstorm? Poof. Set it down for a second on the subway and then never retrieve it? Poof. Let your girlfriend borrow it and then break up with her? Poof!
> By contrast, if I buy some virtual bullshit peddled by electronic
> monopoly capitalist, I pay through the nose for it, but in return
> I get a *license* ...
I like the license model better. If I lose or destroy the medium, I still have the license. I've been reading books on Kindle lately. Everything I "bought" is just an entry in a database somewhere; if I break the reader and get a new one, I don't have to re-purchase licenses: all my licenses are safe.
It's been a long time since I've "played a CD" -- when I buy music, normally I buy downloads; and all the listening I do is from some device that understands the bits. But when I used to buy plastic media, I would immediately rip it to more portable magnetic media, and make back up copies. I found one such old piece of plastic recently and for fun popped it into my laptop. It would not play! It was old, worn, and unreadable (don't even ask about the vinyl I still have ...).
Good thing my license included the ability to make back up copies. I can't say the same for my copy of Moby Dick that I found in a box the other day which is moldy. I guess I'll have to get a new copy on Kindle!
/jordan