Ownership. Why My Digital Files Aren't Really My Own. - Steve Rosenbaum

I39ve been thinking about the concept of ownership in the digital world It seems that owning something digital may not be the same as owning something in the physical worldHere39s how I learned this I was traveling last week overseas to France and then Monaco I39ve been catching up on a hit TV series that many of my friends recommended Homeland I39m a bit behind ok I39m a year behind so I decided to buy the 2011 season Amazon offered it in SD and HD as part of their Amazon Instant Video Offering I bit the bullet 3100 for the HD version of the season about 250 an episode almost the cost of a movie rental for one hour TV show Not cheap but it won 6 Emmy39s so fair enoughFirst I wanted to bring it with me on my iPad Amazon offers a nifty Prime Video App for the iPad free so I downloaded the app and then bought the Season Amazon was clear you can download it twice as per their deal with the studio Fair enough I get the concept of buying a copy or a number of copies With software downloads you can buy a fixed number of downloads But my iPad was where I wanted to access the file so I burned one of my downloads and my iPad was ready to travelOnce on the plane I found a collection of pretty terrible Hollywood movies on the inflight entertainment system I was feeling pretty smart for having brought my own media Click Fail The Amazon Instant Video App needs to be connected to the web to play a video That didn39t make sense to me as I had downloaded it to the device Ok maybe it39s for DRM purposes to make sure I39m logged in as an authorized user Pretty disappointing but OK lesson learned Then after a few days of nonstop at the Monaco Media Forum I snuck off to my room to catch up on an episode or two of Homeland Again fail And this time my iPad was connected to the web But Amazon had me Geolocated in France and this file isn39t allowed to be played outside of the USA Again Amazon pointed the finger at the movie studio But here I call foulThink about it How would you feel if McGrawHill allowed you to buy a copy of Curation Nation but said you can39t take the book out of the country How dare they You own it You didn39t rent it or borrow it What if GM said you can buy a car in Texas but you can39t drive it to Arizona Again you39d go nuts Or what if The Gap sold you a pair of white pants but said you can39t wear these after Labor Day Ownership means you don39t have to be bound by rules or as permission to use what you ownIn point of fact Amazon isn39t selling me a copy of Homeland It39s giving me a limited license to view it under certain circumstances and within certain territories And I39m guessing that they have the right to adjust those terms and conditions at any timeAll of a sudden my 31 doesn39t seem like a fair deal it feels like an overpriced video streaming fee that39s masquerading as ownership And I don39t like it And most importantly I don39t like that Amazon didn39t tell me about the limits of my rights BEFORE I purchased it DRM is an old idea that39s quickly going away Apple has effectively abolished DRM on iTunes after trying to control rights to music And we shouldn39t let Hollywood Studios redefine what quotowningquot a movie means any more than we would let GM redefine what owning a car meansOnce I buy it it39s mine To use as I please And not being able to view a movie or TV show on an airplane is just plain crazy Not only do I want my money back I want the 2 hours I took fumbling around with downloads and failed attempts to view the show That really makes me madSteve Rosenbaum is founder and CEO of Magnifynet and the Author of the recently released McGrawHill Business book quotCuration Nationquot March 2011 Steve can be contacted at stevemagnifynet Follow Steve Rosenbaum on Twitter wwwtwittercommagnifyRead all Steve39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Steve Rosenbaum The Media MemoCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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