After a long time, I’m back! And this time, it is about a seemingly random subject.

Sometimes I like to watch Louis Rossmann’s Youtube channel, a guy that owns a repair shop for electronics in New York. Most of this videos it is ranting about something, especially about Apple’s anti-competitivity practices, like locking down the software and hardware of their products to avoid third parties (like you, me and repair shops not associated with them) to change parts and make repair on it. It is a distasteful behaviour that should be condemned, but it is Apple, so clap clap, is magic! They can do everything they please, like pushing back against a law that prohibits US companies to contracts companies offshore that uses forced labor. Not a joke, they are against it! (the law, not the forced labor). Well, it is not about this today’s post, but surely it has to do about this: the amount of control that nowadays companies has and will have over the things you use or have purchased. And before you yell at me, no, I’m not against the march forward of technological advances, that it always have pros and drawbacks and it is almost always morally neutral (except facial recognition, this one has only drawbacks and it is immoral. I may write about this sometime). Anyway, one of the Rossmann’s video is exactly about the lost of ownership of physical thing we purchased (we don’t have ownership about virtual things, only licenses, at least legally speaking. It a fucking hell). The title is “YOU WILL OWN NOTHING AND BE HAPPY!”, a slogan from a World Economic Forum’s video about “how the world could change by 2030”, and it is so… dystopic? Ok, it is not prediction with solid bases, but it is a warning about what common people, and moreover, millionaires and billionaires that own the biggest companies today may think about the future. And if they are who thinking this, and they are who create the products and sell them, it is not hard to see that is not a innocent prediction, but a “I’ll make it be” prediction.

But what the fuck is an ownership-less society? Imagine a world where everything is a Uber-like service, pay when you use it. I know, plenty of things are already this ways, like the very own Uber, video and music streaming services, and the old-fashioned house rent (after all, everyone needs a home to live). So, at first glance, it doesn’t sound so bad, and I partially agree, why would I need an expensive car that I use once or twice in the week, or why would I spend time and money buying digital or physical movies if I only watch once, or why should I pay an insurmontable amount of money upfront if I just got a low-level job? And the list go on, it is very convenient, it is cheaper, it uses less of your free time. And although I use “ownership-less”, it is not really without any ownership (and have nothing to do with communism/socialist, on contrary, is overflowing capitalism and money), but instead of you having the possession and the use right, you will own only the use right – precisely, privilege – not the good (physical or digital) itself. So far, so good, but I wouldn’t be typing this article if it wasn’t to complain about something, right?

The over dependence on internet

Probably you are cursing at me now. I am very aware that I am over dependent on internet, almost everything that I need to fulfill my obligations as citizen (sadly) and sustain my life is passing through an optical fiber somewhere. It’s a fact of life, we are in the fucking 2020 (or 2021, I don’t know when I will finish this article) and our society is revolving around computers. However, the big catch is that for our immediate survival we don’t need it. But for anything else, pretty much needs internet. Let’s take an easy example: software. Maybe since a decade ago, when internet really became widespread, with good speeds, reasonable prices, many of our daily use softwares has become subscription-based, even when it is not really needed to. Let’s take Microsoft’s Office suite. It was launched in 2010 as an alternative for the old full offline Office. Nowadays you can buy one license for 6 people for USD 100 per year, while the offline version is USD 150 (and it allows, at least legally, to be installed only once). It is not difficult to see where it is heading to, and I see in the next years the offline version to be phased out entirely. It is an company’s choice, for sure, but just imagine if one day Microsoft servers goes down and then you can edit or read that life or death document (a little bit of exaggeration, I know) and then you can access it because although you paid, the servers are down, or you internet is down, or some druken asshole ran over a pole and you are in the dark. But ok, in the docs says that you should be online every 31 days at least for your software to be reactivated but why the fuck do I need a login to a text editing software?

Not so scare, you say. And then I show you the apex of over dependence on internet.

Back to Apple. In November 12th, 2020, their servers had some problems. When MacOS users tried to open their usual programs in this operational system, they couldn’t because, well, MacOS sends some information about the softwares you open, including your IP address, city and ISP name to the fruit company (privacy considerations aside, it will be next topic). The programs just refused to open, because they weren’t able to send unrelated, unnecessary data to the servers. Let be sincere, we couldn’t expect less from Apple, well known to lock down both hardware and software of its products. The workaround was disconnect the wifi or internet because the sluggish response from server was causing the programs not to open, but an outright failed connect would skip the check. But I average user wouldn’t know what to do in this case. An average user expects to keep working whatever there is internet or not (unless the software really needs it).

Not so time later, the Google servers went down, in December 14th, 2020. For a few hours, the authentication system just exploded (metaforically), and nobody couldn’t do anything in many Google services, like Youtube, Gmail and Google Docs. Although in this case you usually expect to be services 100% in the cloud, specially companies that were dependents of Google Docs (free, unlike Office 365) couldn’t get the work done.

How could we forget the games? I think one of the most controversial games in this subject was Sim City 5. When the game was launched, many could even play because the servers were overloaded – a 70 fucking dollars paper weight –, infuriating many consumers that time, that already knew Sim City mechanics always worked very well without internet connection (we all know it is because the “DRM-fever”, an mechanism hated by everyone). Specially when news went out saying the always online requeriment really wasn’t needed. Also, when EA realize the power bill is too high, they would simply unplug the servers, and if they never release an update allowing offline gaming (and finally proving that the online part was a lie), that is it. You bought, but you never owned.

The over dependency on third party services

It is old news, but I think it shows a good point. In 2009 Amazon has simply deleted books from George Orwell (oh, the irony), like 1984 and Animal’s Farm from Kindle devices, after a dispute over copyright. Yes, people who have paid for them saw their digital data vanish (at least, they got a refund). This happened 12 years ago, when the ebook market was small, and concepts like cloud or internet of things were just starting to float. If you think Amazon has settled this question, saying that won’t happen again, this article points out that “The retailer will still wipe an e-book if a court or regulatory body orders it, if doing so is necessary to protect consumers from malicious code[…]”. It is a fucking rabbit hole of problem that comes with it, specially when in US legally you cannot (but people do it because they aren’t some state’s puppet) strip off the DRM from said books.

Also in similiar line, but less dramatic, is when some subscription service remove something you are into it. I know that when you pay subscription, you have the feeling the you are really owning nothing, just renting for a period. Every year, Netlflix removes titles from its catalogue due licensing or market strategy, and Spotify even removes songs from playlists if the artist has serious accusations against him. The worse is when the “family friendly” Disney Plus outright censored pieces of old movies, by substituting some “fucks” for something less agressive or changing some racial stereotypes from old works. A non extensive list of changins can be [read here and here. While should be obvious the works made in different times should be seen in its context, Disney is treating all of their audience equally as children, instead of making parental control a thing. Again, the idea of a subscription service that you own nothing is a strong argument pro-the company does that it wants to do, modify and hide undesirable parts to appeals today’s paladar is like history being rewritten.

And about apps stores? If you have an iPhone you are dumb and already fucked, because you cannot install anything outside Apple Store. You you have Android, you are just a little less dumb, but just a little, because although it is possible to install apps from outside Play Store, you will receive some safety notifications. But that is not the point (besides trying to offend the reader), the point is routinely apps are censored from the stores. Some reasons are valid, like when malware is embedded or the app has so many problems causing users to complain too much. However, many cases the censorship is over the content of those apps, or worse, over content generated by users. Apple explicitely doesn’t allow any sexual content (meaning the only way to reach them is through the browser), and Google also has restrictions. If it was due some parental control to children to not get access to such content, it would be nice. But they are trying parenting… adults?

We can also dive in murky waters when it is come to political speech. Gab, a platform trying to be an alternative to mainstream social network selling itself as a free speech place (unless you are weeb, in this case they are pro censorship) was removed from both platforms in 2019. To make things worse, cloud providers just cut off their servers. The same can be said of Parler, an social network that I just discoverd yesterday because US is on fire, was already banned from app stores and will have/had (depends when I publish this) their servers cut off from Amazon (I don’t understand how they can be so dumb, it was so obvious that it would eventually happen).

How it is possible to have your own platform when everyone, from phone makers to infrastructure providers can, in a snap of things, shut down your business? That is the problem where you don’t own your hardware.

Your money is not your money

As we walk towards a cashless society, where in practice we lose ownership of our money (we need to rely on third parties, be the banks or a bitcoin full node, at least the second one can’t deny any transaction), most of our financial transactions are made digitally. Usually a credit card, but also debit card and bank transfers. The problem arises when cards operators just decides that you can’t spend your money wherever you want. At more inofensive side, it is frustrating when a late night transaction is refused by your bank, when you need to call them to authorize it (it happened to me). At more nuclear side, the card operator just bans some companies to work with, and then they have almost no means to recover from such situation.

In 2020, UK banned the use of credit card in gambling, because individual responsability is too much to ask from its citizens. It is a state enforced rule, not the card operator, but we will get there.

The following is also old news, from 2012, but it is basically the card operator controlling your money. Paypal, the payment processor for an ebook publisher that also publishs erotica, was pressured to cut its service with the publisher, allegadely saying that some ebooks contains material against the new policies set by the credit card company (Mastercard, in this case). What a hell. The worse, it was from the time where Paypal itself had very relaxed policies (unlike today, where they are now in the religious extremist side, banning things that are “immoral”).

I won’t post links again, but card processors also has blocked Gab and Parler from using their services. A well known Japanese site called DMM that sells from innocuous things to explicit content forbids you from using PayPal to buy certain goods depending on their content, because they are bound to PayPal’s extreme puritan terms of use. So, it makes no difference you are a rich person, with millions in your bank account. If some day your bank or card processor say you can’t spend your fucking money in a book because violates moral standards (?), that is, you always can pay using bank bills (can you?).

These examples were from merchant side, but slippery slope or not, what will stop them from block your purchase of a cake or Coke because it is unhealthy and you have too much sugar in your blood? Or beer, because you may drink and drive? Or donate to your polical movement because they disagree with? They may not confiscate your money, but if you can’t use, it is not worth anyway. There is no reason for morality to guide what things you are allowed to buy or donate.

Retaking the control

Is it possible to scape from this society where you don’t control your own possessions? Not totally, but yes, at some extent. Eventually government will extinguish paper money, and all transactions will need to pass to some kind of centralizer (bank, for instance). I won’t talk too much about cryptocurrency here, they are not untouchable lawless entities (unfortunately), but at least, for now, they are censorship-resistent. Your phone maybe make it difficult to flee from lockdown apps and system, but if you are techy savvy enough you can have an Google-less Android, although won’t be a smooth experience, and a Linux-based operating system with offline applications, but again, your quality of life will suffer and for the average, non tech user, it will be impossible. If you really like your movies and music being truly yours, you can buy them in physical form (although it is becoming more rare this days), or in buy-for-life digital form – for movies, I don’t know if it exists (except PirateBay, they will be there for your torrenting needs), but for music, there are a few services DRM-free, lossless audio quality where you can support your artists (Bandcamp and Ototoy for Japanese music are the ones I recommend). Just don’t forget the overhead of storing and organizing all this files. If you want to flee the strict rules and censorship of Twitter or Facebook, well, you are kind of fucked. Big projects like this need money and servers running, if they can’t have neither one, they hardly will see daylight. Even using open protocols like Matrix or Mastodon, where different servers federates to each other forming a big decentralized network, you still need money and machines to scale up, and a way to release your client. For your small user base, it may works, but once you are gathering millions of people and becoming an threath to already established oligopolies, well…

Closing words

If you paid attention, I didn’t asked above for some kind of regulation because it is a complex subject (except for the right of repair, where I think it is good idea, but I need to develop more the ideas on it). However, three things we must have in mind is 1) if it is a subscription is not yours; 2) if stays on someone else’s hardware is not yours; 3) your money is not always yours. The life is easier in that side, but is it more free?























4) If you are an Apple user, you are already fucked.