You Don't Always Own What You Buy

Bought isn't always yours

We're used to the idea that if you paid for something, it's yours. With digital things, that's often not true, and the fine print says so.

Sony has removed shows and movies from libraries people had paid for. Amazon once deleted books from Kindles after people had paid for them. In both cases the terms were clear all along: you bought a license to use something, not the thing itself.

The same idea runs through business software

Movies and e-readers are the easy example. Most of the software your business runs on works the same way.

When you "buy" a subscription tool, you're renting access under terms the vendor can change. You don't own the software, and often you don't fully control your data inside it. That's fine day to day. It matters on the day the relationship ends:

• If your subscription lapses, access can shut off, sometimes taking your data with it.
• If the company discontinues the product or goes under, the tool can simply stop.
• If they change the terms or the price, your choice is to accept it or leave.

Renting is usually fine

Subscriptions and hosted tools are often the right call for a small business. They're affordable, someone else handles the upkeep, and you're always on the current version.

Just go in knowing the difference between owning and renting, so nothing important depends entirely on access that isn't yours to keep.

What to keep your own copy of

The safe habit is to hold your own copy of anything you'd be hurt to lose:

• Your customer and contact lists. Export them regularly. This is your business, and it should never live only inside someone else's tool.
• Your financial records. Invoices, statements, tax documents.
• Your files and documents. Keep a copy somewhere you control, not only in a vendor's cloud.
• Anything you created. Photos, writing, designs, videos.

If a service disappeared tomorrow, you want to be inconvenienced, not wiped out. Renting the tool is fine. Renting your own data isn't.