Of Companies and content

            Large companies such as Amazon, Apple, and Google want us to not think of digital content as something we can own. In fact, many of their end user agreements codify that we don’t actually own the content we buy. For instance, the Google play user agreement says

Following payment of the applicable fees for Content, you will have the non-exclusive right, for the period selected by you in the case of a purchase for a rental period, and in other cases for as long as Google and the applicable copyright holder have rights to provide you that Content, to download, use or stream, in each case, solely as expressly permitted by Google and subject to the restrictions set out in the Terms and associated policies, copies of the applicable Content to your Devices, and to view, use, and display the Content on your Devices or as otherwise authorized by Google as part of the Service for your personal, non-commercial use only. All rights, title and interest in Google Play and Content not expressly granted to you in the Terms are reserved by Google and its licensors.

Basically, this means Google owns the content and they give you the right to use it. and this isn't unusual. Language like this appears in the iTunes and amazon user agreement too. Worst yet, since you don’t own the content, you can’t protect it. For example, in 2009 Amazon lost the rights to the George Orwell novels “1984” and “Animal farm”. Consumers who had purchased these books were understandably miffed to wake up and find that the books had been deleted from their kindles. (stone, 2009) It wouldn’t be acceptable for a book store owner to break into you house and take back paper copies of your books, but with digital content it seems that is acceptable. In conclusion It’s important that we remember that we do own the digital content we own even if it doesn’t feel like it, and that we push back legally against entities that would seek to deny that.

References

Google. (2017, January 23). Google Play. Retrieved from Google Play terms of service: https://play.google.com/intl/en-us_us/about/play-terms.html

stone, B. (2009, july 17). Amazon erases orwell books from kindle. Retrieved from The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html?_r=0