... expect the solution to be no more movies "sales," just rentals with a fixed time limit, either "until [date master license expires/is up for renewal]" or "some number of weeks/years".

Another solution will be to shift to a "library access" model, which is already common. At least that will be understandable by the general public: Most people know that brick-and-mortar public libraries retire old books to make way for newer ones.

As for existing complaints, the best hope consumers have is that some law firm will successfully argue that the fine print is too buried to create an enforceable contract, then reach a settlement that gives consumers some partial credit depending on how long they had access to their purchase, with vanishingly-low credit if the purchase was more than a few years ago.

When it comes to AI, I expect there will be many years between any credible, widely-recognized claim of sentience and the time when more than a few countries recognize "human rights" for them, if it happens at all.

Having sentience is not required for most people to say "this person/entity deserves human rights," and such rights are routinely granted to non-sentient individuals or entities:

We rightfully give legal human rights to people with medical conditions that render them not self-aware and not intelligent in any meaningful way (e.g. newborns with severe anencephaly, who may only have a brain stem and may only live a few minutes), because they part of a larger class (people) who by definition are supposed to have human rights.

We give limited "person rights" to corporations and other legal entities, but they only exist as legal fiction.

We do not give "basic human rights" to primates, dogs, dolphins, octopuses, and other animals even though there are examples of each that are arguably smarter and more self-aware than a typical 4 year old child. Even in the USA, dogs - "Man's best friend" - are routinely killed (albeit humanely) in some animal shelters for no reason other than the shelter they are in is too full.

In some countries and periods of history, we don't even give "basic human rights" to all healthy adults (e.g. repressed political minorities, children, the ill, the elderly, slaves, women, etc.).

In short, being sentient doesn't mean you get legally-protected human rights, and you (rightfully) may get legally-protected human rights even if you, as an individual, are not self-aware and show no signs of being intelligent.

It's all about him, and the quest for fewer choices.

AI companies need to be more than just taxed for what they steal.

I was from New England, and I have lived here in Santa Clara County for over 20 years, so I have a unique perspective on PG&E. Here in most of California, because the weather is more mild, it might appear to make more sense to let the problem happen--because it can often be fixed at any time. However in Connecticut, if you don't want your crews restoring power in the freezing rain and snow, they have to do more inspections and more maintenance in the brief time they can.

When I lived in Connecticut, it was rare to ever have a power-failure, and if there was one people might freeze to death. I can remember losing power in the late 1970 during an ice storm. Here in California, with PG&E, we lose power for at least a few hours--ever 9 months. I keep flashlights ready. We also had a series of glitches that corrupted one of the 2 Firmware/CMOS/UEFI on my motherboard. I had a good Corsair power supply with nearly a second of capacitor run time at idle, and the spike got through that. It also got through a decent Belkin multi-channel power filter. It's not Isobar, but still it was good, and it got through it.

Every year, I hear a transformer explode or see one burn in this neighborhood. A few years ago, power lines fell close in my back yard, which were so bright--even in the front yard, that I first thought we had beem nuked. A fire had started behind our tight track of back-to-back houses and almost them and ours down.

Across the street, the utility pole across the street has noticeable lean to it, at least 5 degrees, likely more. Twice I reported it. It's still not fixed. One might have been worried that it's still not fixed--but I am worried that PG&E thinks they have bigger problems with their equipment than that. PG&E needs to do maintenance of their equipment, or even more people will die. I don't call them Pacific Gas & Explosion for nothing. Just how many people need to die to lose a utility charted here in California, anyway?

“Good artists copy, great artists steal” - Pablo Picasso

I believe the classic line between copying and synthesis is taking from three artists or more.

The author is allowed to not give a flying fig about that. Or anything else.

AI-lings, just leave open-source the hell alone.

Nothing good has come from AI, no miracles. Even a cancer cure won't offset the number of people who die because they have no healthcare, because the lost their jobs to billionaires.

...people who will be mentally ill.

How many security flaws remain?

I just did a Windows 11 reinstall on a system. Let's see... Go through the normal "privacy" drill down, including beg Microsoft to delete what it has. Disable "Search Disk Contents" and let that run. Keeping it from uploading all of OUR documents to Onedrive, let's see....

With NVMe drives, we can find the occasional file in a few seconds--out of 1/2 million of them. We don't need indexing to wear our now-expensive SSD's. Microsoft so, this whole new seach thing is just about AI spying right?

Instead of just taking now, and paying now, they have to pay now, and they can't keep.

...including here, but then again, those selfish billionaires who own AI, who raised by action, raised the prices for all of our computer hardware, who want to see people impoverished, are using their computer AI program, and that's all they are--and all of their money to advertise...that everything is okay.