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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   30074 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 12, 2024

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I don't think that's quite right. The "them" you are telling is a tool, not a person. It shouldn't be expected to exercise any more discretion than your paintbrush does. It's more like they're letting you rent their super-cool paintbrush that can paint whatever you want, including Mickey Mouse and Hillary Clinton.

At no point does another person's discretion come into it. I don't see the argument that they should be made to prevent you from painting those things any more than a brush manufacturer.

I mean, that battle had been fought and lost already. Software-as-a-service is the most prevalent thing now and no company will categorize this as you renting their software.

I buy software licenses for my team. A couple years ago a salesman for a major vendor of engineering software told me that their permanent licenses were being phased out and from now on only yearly subscriptions would be offered.

I got a few more permanent licenses using the excuse of available capital expense budget. The salesman told me they will never again allow that.

We've built such a fragile system. These license management tools are sensitive and prone to breaking under the very best of circumstances. No possibility these licenses are accessible on old hardware 10 years from now.

Something robust and important has been thrown away.

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