How are owning digital media and physical media different? I know we don’t technically “own” our digital games, or maybe that was a big misunderstanding on my part. Thanks!
In: Technology
The issue with digital media is that the value is not in the media, it is in the content.
If you buy a car – the car is worth $35k. If you wanted to create a copy of that car and give it to someone else, it would likely cost you $350k to do that because you don’t have an efficient factory.
Contrast that with a movie. If you buy a movie, the DVD is worth a nickel. The movie on the DVD is worth $200,000,000. If you want to copy that movie and give it to someone else, it will cost to you a nickel.
For this reason, the content provider does not care what you do with the DVD, but he wants to make sure you are clear on what you can do with the content. He sold you one copy, for your individual use. If you copy it, you cannot give it to anyone else – you can use it as backup only.
The other way to explain it is that he didn’t sell you the movie – he sold you a plastic disc, and a license to watch the movie in your home without charging admittance. That’s it. You have no other rights to that movie. If you don’t like that rule, don’t buy the license.
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