> The lack of consumer-oriented legislation is the proximal cause for devices phoning home, spying on you, locking you out of the goods you've purchased (that i

> The lack of consumer-oriented legislation is the proximal cause for devices phoning home, spying on you, locking you out of the goods you've purchased (that is, dictating how you can and cannot use the good) and which resist the user's need to repair or extend. I wholeheartedly agree, and it snowballs. The way I see it is: 1. One time purchases are the least lucrative. 2. Subscription fees, and therefore control of device, are more lucrative than one time purchases. 3. Advertising (tracking, privacy invasion) is more lucrative even than subscription fees. 4. Both subscription and advertising combined is more lucrative than on their own. 5. There are a bunch of other upsell type models depending on the industry. This includes accessories, warranties, in-app purchases, etc. Hard to generically categorize these, but they are almost always more lucrative than one time purchases. It's easy to see where an unfettered market will gravitate over time. This could be solved via regulation if (big if) we had enough uncaptured legislators (and voters that held their feet to the fire), however we now have large swaths of the economy who's business models are complete non-starters if sufficiently regulated. So we'll at best end up with some inn-effective watered down regulation that has the appearance of doing something, and probably not for a while still. It's a slow moving disaster that everyone sees, but only a minority care enough about or even want to try and fix. You know, like artificially low interest rates.