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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7987776" data-attributes="member: 29398">To those who don't contribute, correct.But to those who do contribute, I'd say there is some obligation there; though in the case of EnWorld greatly mitigated by the contribution being completely voluntary.However, there I'm specifically paying for a service, it seems, rather than an actual end-use product.  I'm renting, as it were, instead of owning.I'm talking about situations where in theory I'm paying to own, not rent.Again, rent vs ownership.No, I expect to have my own copy of whatever I've bought, if I'm buying an end-user product (such as a pdf) rather than renting a service.  At that point, I'm responsible for its upkeep.But if someone's selling me an end-user product but not allowing me to have my own copy of it then yes, they're obligated (and should be forced by law) to keep it accessible for as long as I or any other purchaser wants it.It doesn't, really, which is just my point: as soon as I'm denied access to something I've in theory paid for, I've been ripped off.  The analogy would be buying a book and then having the publisher come to my house in five years demanding it back, or stealing it.Over-the-top yes, but I get your point.However, all of those issues Go Away if I'm just provided the pdf in the first place.  Then storage etc. becomes my headache, just like I have to find shelf space for a physical book.And here you've hit on another of my serious issues with many things digital: backward compatibility.  IMO this is something that should and must be enforced such that something that works now will work in perpetuity, rather than having consumers forced to re-buy content every time the technology advances.  Just like - if I owned one - I could still take my Model-T Ford for a spin on today's roads; I wouldn't be able to keep up with today's cars but my Ford would still function much like it always has.Example: I have some old PC games on my shelf here that I simply cannot run any more; both because they on physical media (floppy disks) the drives for which pretty much no longer exist, and because the current version of Windows isn't backward-compatible enough.Two things there:If you backup on site (i.e. in your own computer or a different drive in your house) then the hardware used is every bit as vulnerable to those same hazards as is a physical book.And if you backup off-site e.g. in "the cloud" then your data is at the mercy of whatever service you've used for that backup. (and the physical hazard risk, though less, is still present too e.g. the backup provider's machines could go up in a fire - a company I worked for had this happen once, much to its dismay)</blockquote>

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