- Hey there, "Two Cents" viewer.

Before we get started, just a little bit of legal housekeeping.

(clearing throat) By watching this video, you are agreeing to the following.

You shall not copy, transcribe, or publicly display this episode (except at an awards show).

You may not disparage "Two Cents" or its hosts in any capacity.

And that includes comments about Philip's hair, or lack thereof.

You must subscribe to the "Two Cents" channel and click the notifications bell and become a patron on our Patreon page.

Link in the description.

You will tell at least five friends that "Two Cents" is your favorite show of all time, and if they don't watch it, you won't be their friend anymore.

By continuing to play this video, you are agreeing to be bound by the aforementioned terms and conditions of this end user license agreement.

For those of you who are still here, thank you for being such disturbingly loyal fans, but alas, this is not remotely enforceable.

(button beeping) This, however, is.

(lively music) - As a CFP, I would ordinarily never advise someone to sign a contract that they haven't read.

But when it comes to EULAs, or End User License Agreements, we don't really have a choice.

- If you wanna participate in modern society, you probably have to click, "I agree," at least a dozen times a month.

And the idea that any of us would or could actually read all the terms and conditions is ludicrous.

iTunes' agreement is longer than "Macbeth," just to buy a $2 song.

- And even though we all check the box that says, "I have read and understand these terms," most people would need an extended session with a lawyer to really know what they're agreeing to.

One study estimated that the average American would have to devote an entire month to properly understand all the terms and conditions they agree to each year.

- If you need any more evidence that people don't read these things, one games retailer snuck a clause into their terms and conditions, giving the company "a non-transferrable option to claim for now and forevermore, your immortal soul."

Over 7,000 people clicked, "Agree."

22,000 people committed to 1,000 hours of community service in exchange for free wifi.

And when a software maker promised $1,000 to the first person who noticed the offer in the fine print of their EULA, it took four months for someone to claim it.

- Most of us have just accepted all this as an annoying fact of modern life, a technocratic oddity of the internet age.

But EULAs are just the latest weapon in a battle that's been going on for 100 years, a battle against ownership rights.

- In 1904, the publisher Bobbs-Merrill printed a small disclaimer inside each copy of the novel, "The Castaway."

It read, "The price of this book is one dollar net.

No dealer is licensed to sell it at a less price, and a sale at a less price will be treated as an infringement of the copyright."

- [Philip] Like most publishers, Bobbs-Merrill saw used bookstores as a threat to their business.

In a perfect world, everyone who wanted to read their book would have to buy their own brand new copy at full price, and they thought they could force people to do that by invoking copyright law.

- It didn't work.

The courts struck down their lawsuit because they saw it as an attempt to attach servitude to personal property.

Servitude refers to conditions or obligations that are tied to a sold property.

It's most common in real estate, like mandating what kind of structures can be built on a piece of land.

But it's not allowed when it comes to personal property.

You can't sell someone a hammer and then tell them what they can build with it.

The new owner can use their property how and when they want.

- These rights of ownership were codified in the Copyright Act of 1909.

It created protections for the owners of intellectual property like authors and publishers, but it also carved out some rights for the buyers of individual copies.

According to the Act, if you buy a book, you can't make duplicates and sell them.

You can't charge audiences to hear a public reading or sell your own sequel.

You can, however, resell the book if you want to, or lend it to a friend, or give it as a gift.

- Over the next hundred years, those rights of ownership have been relentlessly targeted by IP owners.

Record companies tried to shut down used music shops.

Movie studios tried to criminalize the VCR, and video game developers tried to stop the sale of used games.

While digital technology has created some real threats of illegal duplication and piracy, most of these efforts are about control, trying to control how people use a product after they've bought it.

- Time and again, the courts sided with consumers, ruling that unless people were making and distributing illegal copies, they were free to do whatever they wanted with their individual copies.

But with the digital revolution, IP holders found a way around the law: ask consumers to voluntarily sign away their rights to ownership as a condition of the purchase, the End User License Agreement.

- Even though e-sellers use language like, "Buy now," and "Own it in 4K," if you actually read the terms, you'll find that you don't actually own the thing you buy, you're just getting a license or permission to use it in certain limited ways.

Most EULAs don't allow you to lend or gift your purchases and dictate what devices you can use them on.

Some prohibit any kind of disparagement, which could even mean a negative review.

And many reserve the right to revoke your license at any time without a refund.

- Besides the loss of ownership rights, the shift from buying to licensing has other economic downsides.

Artists make much less from streaming than they did from physical media and lack that tactile connection to their fans.

The death of used media shops may mean that lower income audiences will have fewer ways to discover music and movies, which, in the long run, is bad for the industry.

And if switching from one platform to another, like say PlayStation to Xbox means you'll lose your entire library, customers are so locked in that there's little motivation for companies to innovate or compete.

- Nevertheless, EULAs have become so lucrative for businesses that they're looking to expand them beyond IP into more tangible purchases like vehicles, appliances, and electronics.

Anything with a processor can be loaded with simple software that allows the seller to control its functioning after purchase.

Coffee makers can be programmed to only brew certain brands of coffee.

Cars and tractors can be encrypted to prohibit even simple repairs unless at an official dealership.

And printers can be remotely bricked by the company if you're late paying the toner subscription fee.

- Ordinarily, this kind of servitude would be illegal.

The law clearly gives buyers the right to alter, repair, or resell whatever they own.

But though you may own the coffee maker, you don't own the software installed on it, you're just licensing it, which means any attempt to subvert or bypass it is a breach of contract.

If things keep going this way, someday, you could get sued just for loaning your lawnmower to a neighbor.

- But there is a backlash gaining momentum known as the Right to Repair movement.

More than half the states are considering or have passed bills that prohibit companies from inserting these kinds of digital restrictions into physical products.

And unlike almost every other issue in America, this one is uniting people from both sides of the political spectrum.

Turns out that the vast majority of Americans believe that you should be able to do what you want with the stuff you buy.

- Maybe with a little political action, we can stop a dystopian future where we're all subscribers rather than owners.

But until then, EULAs are enforceable contracts.

Even though consumers have no way around them, many courts have affirmed that it is indeed possible to waive your hundred year old rights of ownership just by clicking on a box.

- And unless you're willing to opt out of all popular culture, that's what you'll have to do.

But don't kid yourself, you're not buying anything.

They're just letting you use it for a while.