May 13, 2016

When you buy digital content on Amazon or iTunes, you don't exactly own it — LA Times

From The Los Angeles Times

When you buy digital content on Amazon or iTunes, you don't exactly own it

By David Lazarus

Buy an e-book on Amazon or an album on Apple's iTunes and you own it, right?

Maybe not as much as you think.

It's all about what the tech industry calls digital rights management, and the bottom line for consumers is that there are significant differences between owning a tangible product and owning its electronic equivalent.

A study to be released Friday by researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Law and UC Berkeley finds that "a sizable percentage of consumers" have no clue about what they're really purchasing when they "buy" digital content.

"They mistakenly believe they can keep those goods permanently, lend them to friends and family, give them as gifts, leave them in their wills, resell them and use them on their device of choice," it says.

In other words, they think buying something means buying something. But in the magical land of digital content, ownership is relative....

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The paper “What We Buy When We ‘Buy Now’ ” was co-authored by School of Information adjunct professor Chris Hoofnagle and Aaron Persanowski of Case Western Reserve University and will be published in a forthcoming issue of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. (More information)

Last updated:

October 4, 2016