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

Senator Ron Wyden wants the Government to force companies to specify buyers who receive when buying the digital media online.

Wyden, in a letter to the FTC, are looking for guidance to “make sure that consumers who buy or license digital goods can make knowledge and understand what property rights they obtain.” Consumers should know how long the license lasts and if they can transfer or resell the license (usually not). Verta earlier reported on the letter.

Due to the unpleasant problem of DRM Copyright technology, consumers who buy online content – such as TV movies and shows – often do not have it in the traditional sense. A digital purchase of a movie from Amazon or a game from Microsoft is related to an online account, and buyers generally get a “license” to access it. There are often restrictions. Generally, Amazon makes it impossible to download electronic books purchased from his store and uses them on other types of non-label devices or to sell them.

There are already fine printing in most electronic trade platforms that outline consumers, but Wyden seems to ask for these details to be more clear before and after purchase.

The old saying is applied here “you will not own anything and you will like it.” For the most part, consumers do not “own” anything digital, as long as companies place restrictions on how they are used after purchase. Software is the problem: you can own an Xbox or a Google Nest camera, but a simple update or interruption can make them useless and they can’t do too many consumers.

Especially when it comes to the media, many of these restrictions have been implemented to combat piracy, but it does a weaker experience of consumers and benefit from big technology companies. When consumers buy an electronic book from Amazon, they often expect intuitively for the book to belong to them and yet they cannot do simple things like Download the file and use it on a non-supply device Or sell someone else’s book. While these policies are implemented under the pretext of preventing theft, they also benefit from Amazon appreciation, maintaining people stuck in their ecosystem and limiting any secondary market.

Media companies do not even want consumers to buy their content. Streaming has become the preferred business model, because it creates a recurrent revenue flow and can expand the general market – more consumers can become Xbox players if they can pay a low monthly fee, rather than to buy each game.

The problem of digital property rights may seem like a niche concern, and satisfied streaming consumers may not care. But other basic movements such as the right to repair, were successful in Giving consumers more control over the products they purchase. This is in the end a good thing, even if only a small percentage of the public takes advantage. Companies act in their own interests and is the role of the government to intervene when necessary. Most people will not bother to try to remedy their own iPhone, but it is hard to argue that they should be prevented from doing so.

What the US probably need, critics say, is a Doctrine for first sale for digital products. The doctrine is a legal concept encoded in the copyright law that offers buyers the right to sell the acquired average without the permission of the owner of the copyright. It has never been applied to digital goods, because digital media discharge is considered a reproduction.