https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Possession_is_nine-tenths_of...

Without a compelling, court-tested, legal precedent for Apple to claim "you don't own that iPhone in your hand", the assumption is that you do, regardless of what the EULA might say. EULAs that are contrary to standing law are not valid.

The fact that one can buy iPhones on the secondary market lends credence to notion that consumers own their devices.

And given that Atari and Nintendo both tried, and failed, to make similar arguments against 3rd party software manufacturers, I think it's pretty clear which way the courts would go, if it were to ever be tested.

We don't live in a society where corporations get to make up whatever rules they want, as long as they can convince someone to sign on the dotted line.

Say I sell you a car outright. I decide to push an update that bricks the car and pops up a window on the in dash entertainment with an offer to re enable it for a monthly fee or an offer to buy it back for pennies on the dollar.

I think we can agree that I basically just stole your car and offered to rent it to you.

My ability to control the heart of your device means we can either

- spend the next century litigating in what fashion and circumstances I am and am not allowed to fuck you and to what degree while hoping that the side with the deepest pockets doesn't win most rounds

- pretend that the dysfunctional hand of the free market is capable of solving a complex societal problem this time

- admit that the privileges and rights that we already acknowledge and value implicitly must include the right to access and modify the software included or they can literally be taken away wholly or in part for the increasing percentage of things that include a chip.

I think this is true implicitly but am entirely open on the idea of spelling this out explicitly in terms of additional laws and lawsuits.

Are you really on the side of the weasels?