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January 25, 2011

Defining ownership down.

The downward spiral of ownership and value « The Thingology Blog
We used to own our books. With most ebooks we own them in name, but effectively we lease them. As Jane documents, the slide toward more and more attenuated concepts of ownership continues. The process is gradual. Mental models change slower than technology. If the Kindle had debuted with an access-based "faucet" model, it would have failed. Consumers would not have traded true ownership for a tethered, metered and monitored product. But we'll get there soon enough, as each step away from ownership makes the next step more acceptable. Once you realize your Kindle book is not fully yours, you'll accept it being mostly not yours. Google Ebooks are a further step away from ownership. Eventually you get to a faucet model, as music has done, either low-price (Netflix) or free (Pandora, YouTube).

Posted by Vanderleun at January 25, 2011 11:57 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

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