This quote seems appropriate

Over the past few years we've had quite a few lawsuits which are directly or indirectly to the transition from analog (pen, paper, albums, tapes) to digital data storage and retrieval. You know what they are, so I'm not going to post links. But they do bring to mind this quote from the story "Life-Line", by Robert Heinlein, from 1939:

There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or a corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute or common law.