The Business Case for Owning Nothing

Key Findings

• 1.Adobe's "Heroin" Email: Internal emails uncovered by the FTC show an Adobe executive compared the company's early termination fee to "heroin" for the bottom line—a revenue stream so addictive they designed the cancellation process to be deliberately complex.
• 2.The Proprietary File Trap: Adobe, Microsoft, and Intuit use proprietary file formats (.PSD, .DOCX, .QBW) to lock users in. QuickBooks files require a subscription to access, even though the IRS mandates businesses keep records for seven years—five years longer than Intuit's grace period.
• 3.Click-to-Cancel Was Killed Days Before Launch: The FTC's 2024 rule requiring one-click cancellations was scheduled to take effect in July 2025. Days before implementation, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated it on a procedural technicality—and dark pattern cancellation flows immediately returned.
• 4.Mercedes locks 80 horsepower behind a $900/year "Acceleration Increase" subscription—limiting performance on engines customers have already purchased.