You Should Get to Own Your Media, Not Rent it Forever

There's a lot of rambling in this article.

The way I see it, if you cannot sell it, you do not own it. And if you don't get to own it, there's no reason to buy it.

Been thinking about whether hardware keys could solve this conundrum. Basically a special USB stick that holds all your licenses. You can buy a license in any store you want. You can sell a license wherever you want. As long as you have a license, you get to (re)download your media.

No single platform can hold all your licenses hostage because then all your licenses are with you on your hardware key. You'd need the ability to create backups where the idea kinda falls apart. Maybe something like a blockchain could solve this in a better way.

As an enthusiast photographer I use the 3-2-1 backup strategy. If you are not familiar with it, it simple means keep 3 copies of your data, 2 of them on different media and 1 off site. The off site copy is usually the problem because the options are either online or at a secondary home or family/friend’s place. If you only have one home like in my case, you have to either trust family and friends with copies of your data, or just pay an online provider. I find the latter more secure and convenient. But I agree with the author, no one should have a 1-0-0 strategy, let alone online-only.

I do own my media, not rent. That's because if I can't get it in a form that I have total control over, I don't get it at all. The cost/benefit of doing otherwise is too unfavorable for me.