Entertainment is being used as justification to erode ownership, or even cancel it outright. There is a very disturbing trend where you don’t own the things that you buy — the companies that sold them to you keeps claiming ownership even after the money has changed hands.

Apple has been caught using nonstandard screws on the iPhone and MacBooks with the only purpose of preventing you from doing what you want with your own telephone and computer. Sony is suing people who are tinkering with their own consoles, bought for hard-earned money.

In short: just because you bought something, you shouldn’t believe you have the right to think of it as your “property”. It is actually still controlled by the people you gave money, and they are prepared to sue you for forced entry into their console that you have bought. This is something entirely new.

This trend started some time in 1997 with CDs, when record companies claimed that you didn’t have a right to rip your own records to MP3 files for listening on MP3 players (which is why they sued the first MP3 player manufacturer, Diamond, into oblivion).

As a result, the fundamental concept that you own the things you have bought for good money is under assault. Ownership as a concept is being eroded. For some reason, politicians are accepting this attack on the concept of ownership without really challenging the overabusive corporations.

In the early 2000s, Apple was using a slogan provoking the record industry: RIP, MIX, BURN: It’s your music. In this slogan, the concept of ownership was very clear: you had bought the CD, you had the right to do whatever you wanted with it. It was a challenge to the record industry’s woes of people ripping CDs to MP3 files.

To illustrate how far several industries have gone against ordinary people’s right to own what they have bought with their hard money, the equivalent today from Apple would be HACK, MOD, ROOT: It’s your iPad. Can you see them running that campaign? No? Me neither. More likely, they would sue the hell out of anyone writing that in a public location. Still, it is your hardware. You bought it.

We need to defend the very straightforward right to own what we buy for our own money.