Comment by bluebarbet
14 hours ago
I'd argue that we never really "owned" books. Put aside the mundane physical object and assume that a book is a work of culture, authored by somebody else. What can "own" possibly mean in this context? You don't somehow commandeer its copyright by gaining an indefinite right to consult it. The words "own" and "buy" and "sell" are fundamentally ill-suited to abstract quantities such as knowledge and information and ideas. Perhaps our attachment to this (IMO) egregious category error of "ownership" can be explained by centuries of capitalism and (more recently) consumerism.
This is about how I feel when people discuss "owning" games, and GOG vs Steam. It's just data, you can make a backup or get someone else's, bypass DRM if needed, and you don't own the copyright either way. Interestingly, though, when you apply it to books here, I feel shocked and even a little resistant to the idea. Mostly because of the physical object you say to put aside, though. Similarly to games, it would feel weird to say I owned an epub or pdf I downloaded. I'd probably say I "have" it, or "read it" or am "storing" it on x or y device.
>when you apply it to books here, I feel shocked and even a little resistant to the idea
As you should, but my comment takes "book" to mean the cultural object, encompassing non-physical (e-)books.
> What can "own" possibly mean in this context?
This sounds unnecessarily reductive. By "own" I would mean that I can re-read the book again and again and again as many times as I want as long as I take good care of the book and prevent it from disintegrating.
But the DRM e-books can't be used like that. That was their point.
After moving my personal library this month, I think I want to copy all my paper books to microfiche. I would absolutely buy first run books on fiche.