It may soon be the case that when you buy a car, you won't actually own the car. Auto makers are wanting to extend the concept of intellectual property rights to prevent car owners from modifying or even repairing their own cars.

I grew up in a time where if I bought something, the property rights conferred by the sale allowed me to do whatever I damn well wanted to it - use it, break it, burn it, change it - as long as I didn't do it to commit a crime.

Nowadays, property rights in relation to physical goods appear to be getting weakened dramatically, so when you "buy" something, all you're actually getting is possession and exclusive use, possibly for a limited time.

Whatever happened to *actual* ownership?