Do I not own what I buy?

Now call me old fashioned, but when I buy something, I expect to own it. After I have handed over my hard earned cash, it is mine, mine to do with whatever I so choose. This mentality pretty much sums up my childhood, especially when I used to take nintendo 64/ xbox/ xbox 360 games to friends houses ("it's MY game, I have to have to be player one, I have to be top screen, I have to be that character etc") but hey, what do you expect from a child whose first word was 'mine'?

For me this was the point of games as what was the point of buying them, if you couldn't take them to friends houses and play them? So imagine my surprise, and slight disgust when today I saw that Sony are trying to implement a patent that would effectively kill this sharing, social side to gaming. To put this patent simply, Sony want you to register your game to your console, so it may only be played on your Playstation.

Whilst they may be trying to clamp down on second hand sales, to me this decision just smacks of an over controlling parent. The parent (Sony) takes it's young child (playstation owners) to the park to play. However before the child starts to play the parent attaches a collar to the child that will electrocute them if they go out of a 10 meter radius of the parent. Whilst yes this will increase security for the parent (i.e. stopping the sales), it leavesnthe child having a pretty shIt play-time.

If this patent passes it would be impossible to lend, rent or sell your old game. So whilst you own it, it is not yours to do whatever younwant with, which again is similar to the concept of having a child.

But what happens if the playstation breaks? If all your games are registered to one device, do you lose the right to play them if your console dies? would Sony fork out the money to replace the console and disks? After all you would have payed for something that is now unusable. Not only this, but there have been times I have purchased games that were just god awful, and had to take them back. But this too would be impossible, and at £39 + a game, that is an expensive mistake to make.

I hope this idea is denied a patent, as it is nothing more than corporate greed, highlighting a lack of knowledge about the Market Sony are trying to reach. If this idea does become the norm I can only hope other developers do not follow suit, as the last time that happened we ended up with motion control, and I still maintain, it is a load of crap.