These days it seems like everyone is selling subscriptions rather than actual products. From Photoshop to BMW charging a heated seat subscription it is becoming increasingly harder to just pay for something once and be done with it. Don’t get me wrong, I think the subscription model has a place, but it shouldn’t be that way for everything. If I am using a companys own infrastructure then a subscription is fair enough, as it covers their ongoing costs of maintaining that infrastructure. But if I’ve bought an item, then it’s my property. Why should the company who sold it to me be allowed to continue charging me to make use of my own property?

Some people defend this practice by arguing that there’s nothing wrong with paying for an extra feature. But the thing is, BMW aren’t adding an “extra” feature to the car if you subscribe. The car already has this feature, they are just implenting a completely unnecessary restriction on the product because of the company’s greed. If you buy a physical book from Waterstones, the person on the till doesn’t get to impose restrictions on how you use it afterwards. They can’t insist that you only read one chapter a day unless you sign up to an “unlimited reading” subscription. Once you’ve bought a product, it’s yours and you should be free to do what you like with it. Companies should not be allowed to impose artificial and unnecessary restrictions on what you do with your own property.