Wired and Dangerous

CHAPTER 1How the Service Covenant Became Corrupted

The service covenant has been around for centuries. It is grounded in the concept of the direct or implied pledge of fair bartering—a merchant provides a product or service in exchange for some type of remuneration. Energy might be spent on either side of the covenant as to the fairness of the exchange (server spending energy on promotion; customer spending energy on getting perceived worth), but the essence of the agreement remained intact. There was a promise implied on both sides of the encounter

The covenant for a product was different from the covenant for a service. Customers gave the product provider license to make the product without their participation, or even observation. You did ...