Do you actually own anything digital?::From ebooks, to videos and software, the answer is increasingly no

  • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Can it be taken from you, at any time, for any reason or no reason at all?

    If yes, then you don’t own it.

    • Waluigis_Talking_Buttplug@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I mean, that technically applies to everything. The government can seize your land, the police are in the news every few days for straight up taking money out of people’s homes and vehicles and shooting dogs, robbery is still a living profession, etc

      There’s really not a lot that sentence doesn’t apply to, if anything at all.

        • AlataOrange@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Yes, imminent domain. You don’t own land you only lease it from the government.

        • otp@sh.itjust.works
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          10 months ago

          Can they stop your land?

          I think you mean seize. And I guess it depends on where you live in the world.

      • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        When it comes to the US government at least, there are 4th Amendment protections in place, so no, your property can’t be seized “for any reason or no reason at all”.

        Theft is a thing, but it’s random and you have the right to defend yourself in your own home. You also aren’t at risk for losing EVERYTHING. Not in the way you are if your digital library license gets revoked.

        • AlataOrange@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          If a cop can take your property with no consequences and you will be arrested or killed if you defend yourself and your property, then what the law says doesn’t matter as the defacto state of reality isn’t concerned with such petty things as laws.

        • AdmiralShat@lemmy.ml
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          10 months ago

          This comment is so fucking frustratingly ignorant of the realities of living in the US. Is this a troll comment?

        • doingthestuff@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          You clearly don’t know about the state of seizure laws in the US over the last years. Having cash is reason enough for them to seize it and they don’t have to suspect you of a crime. They can simply find the cash as suspicious and take it and you have to prove the legality of your cash or property at your own cost/expense to get it back.

        • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          10 months ago

          The fourth amendment of the Constitution of the United States does give us protection against unreasonable search and seizure, but the unreasonable is its weak link and as such your protections have been gutted by SCOTUS since the 1990s and the War on Drugs.

          If law enforcement seizes everything you own via asset forfeiture, or kills you in cold blood when you are neither armed nor resisting, your estate can sue to get your belongings back or compensation for wrongful death, but a ruling against law enforcement in your favor is the exception in the US, not the rule.

          Avoid engagement with US law enforcement. Ever. And if you must deal with them, do not expect any right to be respected. Under no circumstances should you call law enforcement to respond to a situation.