Nice, but I wonder about ways to circumvent this. If locking down users is central to a company's business can they force users into accepting that they "rent" the devices instead of "buying"?
If they are going to lock it down anyway, yes I would rather rent it than buy it. That might actually be a good solution.
I don't want to be told not to "tamper" with my PC on the grounds that it would then be possible to use it for piracy.
But "don't tamper with your electricity meter" is perfectly reasonable - You do not own that and you would not expect to own it or be allowed to modify it.
The line is thin. I would't want a situation where you can only plug rented, locked devices into the internet (aka the wet dream of the copyright lobby.) And the power to say "no" to a deal is not always sufficient to stop such crap - look at the game consoles.
Yeah, but what if it is a rental with an upfront rental cost of the MSRP, no monthly fee, and a rental period of say 3 or 5 years? Does really calling it a rental or lease really make you happy?
