Today, Google unveiled it's long anticipated mobile phone service, called Project Fi. However, Google is not building their own network, but relying on the existing Sprint and T-Mobile networks. Because the service can intelligently switch from one LTE network to the other, depending on signal strength, access is initially limited to Nexus 6 owners. Project Fi phones will need a cellular radio that can work with different network types and support a unique SIM that grants access to multiple networks.

The new service will cost $20 a month for unlimited voice and text, plus $10 a month per GB of data used. Interestingly, any unused fraction of data transfer per month is refunded at the same flat rate. For example, if you only use 200 MB of your $10/month data plan, you get an $8 refund.

Another interesting tidbit is how the service uses Wi-Fi. They claim voice calls can transition seamlessly between Wi-Fi hotspots and cell networks. Google has apparently cataloged over a million access points and will automatically connect you to verified hot spots. Also, all data transferred while using an open Wi-Fi hotspot is automatically encrypted through a built-in VPN-like service.

In the software world, it's long been the practice that you don't purchase software, you purchase a license to use it. But as software increasingly gets woven into other products - like the many chips and circuits that run your modern automobile - this practice starts to chip away at the traditional sense of ownership of physical goods.

In a particularly spectacular display of corporate delusion, John Deere-the world's largest agricultural machinery maker -told the Copyright Office that farmers don't own their tractors. Because computer code snakes through the DNA of modern tractors, farmers receive "an implied license for the life of the vehicle to operate the vehicle."

It's John Deere's tractor, folks. You're just driving it.

Several manufacturers recently submitted similar comments to the Copyright Office under an inquiry into the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. DMCA is a vast 1998 copyright law that (among other things) governs the blurry line between software and hardware. The Copyright Office, after reading the comments and holding a hearing, will decide in July which high-tech devices we can modify, hack, and repair-and decide whether John Deere's twisted vision of ownership will become a reality.

It's a conversation with profound implications for the future. Check out the rest at Wired.