We're coming at this a bit different - b/c you're leaning on explaining the current legal framework in the united states, while I'm trying to come to a holistic

We're coming at this a bit different - b/c you're leaning on explaining the current legal framework in the united states, while I'm trying to come to a holistic morally consistent set of rules that makes sense > Being a user isn't what gives you rights under copyright law. Being a legal owner of a copy of a game is what matters. This is meaningless legal/semantic gymnastics. If that's your definition of "owning a legal copy" then companies will simply not sell you a "legal copy" and instead will give you an "indefinite lease" or some other jargon they make up. Or make you sign an EULA. The fact that "legal copies" are distributed is 99% of the time not because companies want to allow you to copy their games - it's simply a practical limitation on the means of distribution. In the system you describe (which might correspond to the current reality) a cloud streamed game just inherently will always have more legal protection that a physically distributed game. There is no way to transmit a person executable bits without "loosing control" of them. The big cloud providers would love this reality! The end result is that everyone is compelled, by market forces in effect, to shift their distribution to a jankier alternative because the physical medium doesn't allowed the same level of IP control. So in the end your societal objectives are not achieved. It's in fact severely hampered. - People get a worse products - everything turns to online streamed garbage - People loose complete access at the whim of the company - when they decide to shut down their servers. - The IP never ever reaches the public domain b/c it's never "distributed" The game is eventually probably lost to time as some intern wipes the last copy from some backupdisk You also create a weird universe where linear media that's streamed and can be captured (eg. a movie or a book) can be copied b/c you necessarily received "every bit" while something nonlinear like games can't - b/c you never get all the bits to "rerun" it locally. The whole setup is just nonsensical