Right to own
The right to own is an right for consumers to be able to completely own their products. CAT believes that a consumer only owns their product if they have full control over it. Ownership is a key concept to consumer rights protection.
Extent of the right to own
As established, a consumer only owns their purchased product if they completely control it. If control is revocable, the consumer does not own their product. A consumer does not own their product if they pay a subscription for continued use. A consumer does not own their product if it bricks itself when the company goes out of business[1] or decides to discontinue production[2]. A consumer does not own their product if they are unable to repair their device themselves due to the company going out of its way to make unauthorized repair impossible[3]. A consumer does not truly own their product if poor security allows unauthorized actors to use the product without permission. Any of these problems will reduce the degree to which consumers own their products and harm their right to own. Before making any purchase consider how much of it is actually yours.
References
- ↑ insert reference to company going out of business and bricking the device here
- ↑ insert reference to product discontinuation and bricking the device here
- ↑ Insert reference to apple doing this. Note: make a page about the Apple repair program being inadequate (change this from reference to direct link preferably. Apple authorized repair