Rent-Only Copyright Culture Makes Us All Worse Off

Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Corynne McSherry & Rory Mir

“In the Netflix/Spotify/Amazon era, many of us access copyrighted works purely in digital form – and that means we rarely have the chance to buy them. Instead, we are stuck renting them, subject to all kinds of terms and conditions. And because the content is digital, reselling it, lending it, even preserving it for your own use inevitably requires copying. Unfortunately, when it comes to copying digital media, US copyright law has pretty much lost the plot.” (01/22/26)

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/01/rent-only-copyright-culture-makes-us-all-worse