A recent survey suggests that many people, particularly gamers, prefer to have physical media, but the makers of games and videos continue to push consumers towards online only content. In the US, the shift has already occurred as gamers there appear to prefer online gaming. With Microsoft claiming that BlueRay is dead, what, exactly, will the future of videos and gaming look like? A recent court ruling has said that we do not own the media we purchase, opening the door to what media producers have been fighting over for several years; we are no longer owners, we are renters.

A federal appeals court said Friday that software makers can use shrink-wrap and click-wrap licenses to forbid the transfer or resale of their wares, an apparent gutting of the so-called first-sale doctrine.

The case is Vernor v. Autodesk, in which Timothy Vernor made his living from selling items (including software) on eBay. Vernor had picked up some old copies of AutoCAD from an architect’s office sale, complete with their serial numbers, and he put them up on eBay noting that they were not currently installed on any computer. Sounds legal, right?

But there’s a catch. Autodesk, the software’s developer, forced all users to accept an agreement before using AutoCAD. This agreement made clear that AutoCAD was merely licensed, never sold, and that one’s license was non-transferable. Further, a licensee could not rent, lease, or sell the software to anyone else; you couldn’t even physically transfer the discs out of the Western Hemisphere (!). Finally, if you upgraded to a new version, the old version had to be destroyed.

The copies Vernor picked up at the architect’s sale were old copies that had not been destroyed as required. Vernor believed he was in the clear to resell them, as he had not agreed to any license. But after putting them on eBay, Autodesk repeatedly tried to shut down his sales. Vernor, on the verge of getting banned from eBay, sued Autodesk and asked the court to declare his sales legal.

A federal court did so in 2008, but Autodesk appealed, and today the appeals court reversed that earlier decision. In its view, US “first sale” protections don’t apply to Vernor, because he didn’t buy the software from a legitimate “owner.” That, in turn, is because the architecture firm had only “licensed” the software, and that license could indeed allow a software company to prevent resale, lending, and even removal from the Western Hemisphere.

Very soon, we will have games, all video (movies and television), music, books, etc. be only available online. Because this will be the only available place to purchase these items, there will no longer be a used market for books, movies, or video games. While this appears to be the way things are going, it must be noted that it is a dangerous road to be traveling on. If I do not own a piece of media, it can be changed at any time, whether I want it to or not. A book could be edited. I could be forced to have the director’s copy of a movie when I wanted the theatrical release.

If a company goes bankrupt, I will lose my media because it will have been hosted on their servers. Even if I want to continue to watch the movie, read the book, play the game, I can’t because I never owned it. If I don’t want this to happen, then I will be forced to break the law so that I can continue to enjoy my media as I want.

We have already seen Amazon deleting copies of 1984 people had bought. Music lyrics sites have been shuttered due to legal threats. The same thing happened with guitar tab sites. Most games require online registration and/or activation after you purchase them just so that you can play them. Computer software updates often remove a feature that you used to have. The US border patrol will look at you suspiciously if you have encrypted data partitions on your laptop. You obviously must be a criminal if you do this.

The rights you had as a computer user to do whatever you wish with your computer and the media you purchased is changing. The shift isn’t something that’s going to happen. It’s happening right now. The question now becomes, “Will you fight back, stop purchasing any kind of media, or sit back and let it happen?”