The phenomenon of online platforms gradually degrading the quality of their services, often by promoting advertisements and sponsored content, in order to increase profits. (Cory Doctorow, 2022, extracted from Wikitionary) source
We discuss how predatory big tech platforms live and die by luring people in and then decaying for profit.
We also discuss how naturally open technologies like the Fediverse can be susceptible to corporate takeovers, rugpulls and subsequent enshittification.
So if we don’t own what we’ve bought, and we don’t even own the licenses under the terms we bought them either, then what exactly are we getting whenever we hand over the money we’ve earned?
Nothing at all.
You get whatever "property" owner decides that day
This reminds me of a Puffin browser Pro that used cloud resource to render contents on the phone. It was super fast and isolated from the OS, making it secure. It was a one time purchase with a free version with ads/limited features.
Then one day, the dev decided there were too many pirates and google wasn't reliable to check licenses. Then shut down the pro version and started charging a subscription. And started doubling down and insulting users calling them pirates and such.
Now that their ratings have tanked, I sometimes go back and watch the reviews for the exchange for some laughs.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cloudmosa.puffinIncognito
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cloudmosa.puffinFree
Who's gonna sue them?
Is there money in it?