Senator Waydan believes consumers who buy digital media should know what they get

Senator Ron Wyden wants the government to force companies to clarify buyers what they are getting when buying digital media online.

Wyden in a letter to FTC is looking for guidance to “ensure that consumers who buy or licensed digital goods can make informed decisions and to understand what property rights they receive.” Users need to know how long the license lasts and whether they can transfer or resale the license (usually not). Air earlier reported of the letter.

Due to the annoying number of DRM copyright technology, consumers who buy content online – such as movies and television shows – often do not own it in the traditional sense. A digital purchase of a movie from Amazon or a Microsoft game is tied to an online account and buyers usually receive a “license” to access it. There are also often restrictions. Amazon usually makes it impossible to download ebooks purchased from his store and use them on other types of devices without a corner, or sell them.

There is already a fine print on most e-commerce platforms that outline the rights of consumers, but it seems that Waydan wants these details to be delineated more clearly before and after the purchase.

The old saying “You will have nothing and you will like it” applies here. For their bigger part, users do not “own” nothing digital as long as companies put restrictions on how they are used after the purchase. The problem is software: you can own an Xbox or Google Nest camera, but a simple update or termination of maintenance can make them useless and there are not many users to do.

Especially as far as the media is concerned, many of these restrictions have been introduced to combat piracy, but this makes more consumer experience and takes advantage of major technology companies. When consumers buy an e -book from Amazon, they often intuitively expect their book to belong and yet they cannot do simple things like Download the file and use it on a device that is not on a kilo Or sell someone else’s book. Although these policies are introduced under the guise of theft prevention, they also take advantage of Amazon’s likes by keeping people locked in their ecosystem and limiting every secondary market.

Media companies do not want users at all to buy their content. Streaming has become a preferred business model as it creates a repetitive stream of revenue and can expand the common market – more users can become Xbox gamers if they can pay a low monthly access fee rather than buy any game every game straight.

The issue of digital property rights may seem like a niche and streaming consumers may not be interested. But other strings of strings as a right of recovery have achieved success in Giving more users control over the products they buy. This is ultimately a good thing, even if only a small percentage of the public benefits. Companies act in their own interests and this is the role of the government to intervene when needed. Most people will not bother trying to repair their own iPhone, but it is difficult to claim that they need to be prevented from doing so.

What the US probably needs, critics say is First -sale doctrine For digital products. Doctrine is a legal concept codified in the Copyright Act, which gives buyers the right to sell purchased media without the authorization of the copyright owner. It has never applied to digital goods, since the download of digital media is considered to be reproduction.