Let me talk about this from a developers viewpoint and namely my own. This should not be considered a general viewpoint held by all or even most developers. When I write a program I feel I own the source code itself. I feel I own my copy of the compiled program. By this same token I feel anyone purchasing my program actually owns thier copy of the compiled program. They can do with it as they please but they only own thier one copy. The problem with this thinking is purely legal and I will break from it when the need arises. A compiled program is still nothing but source code although in a different form. Someone can actually edit the machine code and cause the program to do nearly anything the wish it to do. It also runs into the problems of rights. If you actually do own that copy, what legalities are going to prevent you from maing a copy of your owned copy and giving it to someone else? This is where I would break from it. We can go around all the legal loopholes this provides arguing that you now have a new copy you do not own or that it is simply a copy of what you own and therefore is still owned by you to give away as you wish. This tells you why the ownership is stated the way it is in nearly all software licenses. The company doesn't want to give up ownership in any fashion that will allow an individual to give away all copies for free. Software is a unique product as it is easily copied without change in quality or usability. A car is different as you can't just push a button and make an exact duplicate to give away, if you could then you would never be owning a car of any type, but I bet we would have more traffic then we do today.