Comment by opan

9 hours ago

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.