Is this fair?

Today, my beef deals with licensing, owning, and lies. The problems are lesser for the pirates - they really don't have to care. Neither would they care, the license agreement is just a bunch of text that they blindly click "next" with without any chance of repercussion.

I have fun reading license agreements for software. You can really only read them AFTER having bought the software, and you can't return the software if you don't agree. So the solution is make the license agreement a contract people must read and sign at the cash register when buying software. Also give them a pop-quiz to make sure they read it and understand that by using the software all their rights have been violated to a certain degree.

The next is allowing companies to change a license at will. Either through system critical updates, or just writing it in the contract. My solution: all contracts, digital or not, must be editable by the user who can propose amendments to the contract if they don't agree. And to make this perfect: if a user does not agree to a contract for a software update, and obtain a virus from lack of patching, then the user of the program can sue the company that made the program for the cost of the program. The last part is to keep free software free.

And lastly, people are told that they "own" media. "Own it today" the ads say on TV. Then you notice that after all the nice restrictions, they own the media, and the user has the license. Any fault in advertising in saying "own" instead of "license" will give the user of the media the right to "own" the media to do whatever they wish. Also, clear license agreements must be drawn up so we know what we're getting as consumers (a la iTunes)

The last thing deals with transfer, and the idea of not being allowed to resell/transfer a product. Again, I think that's lame. The goal of all this DRM is to ensure that a digital copy becomes a physical copy - that no-one makes more copies out of thing air. Then why can't we share our digital copy like a physical copy? Or is this a one-way street where it's all the positives according to the company?

I think I'm just peeved that the pirates have it better than the legit user. They can preview a movie/game/whatever before buying. They don't have to care about a ridiculous contract they have to sign and agree to only after they can no longer return the product. They don't even have to care about activation. Nor do they have to care about invalidated keys. Things just work with little effort or fear of revocation from some anonymous remote entity.

At times I wonder why I put so much extra effort in trying to "be legal" when I could even more easily not care like the rest of the masses and fire up an illicit p2p program and access all the media/software I could ever want.

If that were the case, my money would always go to the best producer of a given media. The best movies, the best games, etc. This is because of unlimited previews, I get to try new things, not fearing about the $30+ hole it'll burn in my wallet. And when I do buy something, I know it's the best... So companies can't rely on rehashing the same thing for consumers that feel safe paying into the same old thing. This is more my fear of stagnation - people not creating new IP but shifting from existing ideas to ensure profitability. Who would pay $50 for a new, innovative, untested concept without trying it first or getting good word-of-mouth reviews?

This is the end of my rant. All to say, pirates have it nice. Pirates and rich people will try the new innovative products and get the word out. The rest of us prefer the tried and true media - and get iffy and not buy into anything else.

My solution to all you media companies out there: follow what I outline above. At times you make people sign contracts such as "we are not responsible if your system contracts a virus from using our software" when given software is a single-player-game with no required internet connectivity, etc... That's beyond lame. You expect us to buy something using a medium who's demo can be easily distributed at a low cost thanks to P2P technology.

So here's something to ponder: All my favorite media I tried before buying - either through demos, cartridges borrowed from friends, etc. All my worst purchases are from hype and reviews. And trust me that affects companies as a bad purchase = ban of producer/studio from my "safe to buy from" list for life.