Why Not to Trust “Buy Now” Buttons
Digital Media Ownership Is Partly Based on Lies
The multibillion-dollar digital media marketplace is built, in part, on a lie. Companies like Apple and Amazon entice their customers to “buy now” and “own it in HD.” But consumers don’t own anything at all, at least according to the license agreements that accompany those sales.
Recent years have exposed the fault lines in our conception of digital ownership. Amazon has deleted purchased copies of e-books, including Orwell’s 1984, from the Kindles of its customers. Apple disables access to iTunes purchases when users move to another country. Google-owned Nest unilaterally bricked …
