Is there a better word for this sort of transaction (non-resellable, arbitrary cancellation of service at some unknown point in time by some entities)?
“License” seems too legal, and implies either a lifetime license or fixed term license, which is different than a “we’ll shut down game servers whenever we feel like it”
“Rent” already has a different meaning that is commonly understood.
Is there any suitable existing word? Maybe the awkward phrase “revocable at any time license”?
> lease - a contract renting land, buildings, etc., to another; a contract or instrument conveying property to another for a specified period or for a period determinable at the will of either lessor or lessee in consideration of rent or other compensation.
Lease is pretty similar to rent in my mind — you're getting a product for either a fixed period or for as long as you keep making regular payments, neither of which applies here.
Leases come in all different shapes, forms and conditions. To replace what the companies misleadingly call "Buy" today, they terms would just be "Pay X up front and get access until we cannot provide the service anymore for X,Y,Z reasons".
In many places, ground/land is leased that way, where you pay a sum up-front and are allowed full ownership for 99 years or something like that.
> you're getting a product for either a fixed period [...] neither of which applies here.
Typically, as a practical matter, the license ends with your death. You can't pass your kindle ebooks and steam games as inheritance like you can with physical books and game discs.
It will be interesting to see this challenged in court, because it's a clear violation of the first sale doctrine.
In any event you are within both your moral and legal rights, in the USA at least, to backup any software you have purchased and you should do so if you care about it.
And nobody is going to be able to stop you from leaving those backups to your kids.
It is interesting though how the software business has managed to, via the courts, meme software licenses into existence. The simple fact is that under written US law no license is required to run software you have acquired a lawful copy of. The law explicitly gives you the right to make additional copies as necessary to execute the program. Case law of course is another matter. And lawfare is another matter on top of that. Who wants to spend the rest of their life being sued by Adobe because they want to sell a copy of photoshop they no longer use?
I think lease actually applies as the fixed period of supported ownership is until they take the servers down or they drop support which could happen before you even unwrap.
I think they should also remove “buy“ from any software requiring external servers.
Maybe a "conditional allowance" (noting that the conditions may be vague, and likely vary among products/companies) would be more in line with what's happening?
“License” seems too legal, and implies either a lifetime license or fixed term license, which is different than a “we’ll shut down game servers whenever we feel like it”
“Rent” already has a different meaning that is commonly understood.
Is there any suitable existing word? Maybe the awkward phrase “revocable at any time license”?