The Battle Over Digital Content - Who Owns It?

I assume that you've heard the Big News this weekend; Bruce Willis is bringing a lawsuit against Apple for ownership of his music collection.  According to the terms of service, Apple retains ownership on everything and purchasing a song on iTunes merely allows the purchaser listening rights.

When I read about this, my first thought was, "Woohoo!  Go Bruce Willis!", because we need someone with the clout and the money to start the fight.  My second thought was about how much time and money I've put into buying digital content - books and music mostly - and wondering if I own the things I assume I own. Instead of worrying, I checked.

The answer saddens me.  According to the Amazon.com website, books and games sold for the Kindle do not belong to me because, and I quote, "Digital Content is licensed, not sold, to you by the Content Provider."  Basically, all the books on my Kindle that I assumed I own I don't really own.  They are merely "licensed " to me.

As for the music, I searched through several pages, and I think that I actually own the music.  Yeah, I think.

As for Barnes and Noble, I don't own a Nook, but I check out their website.  I could not find a clear answer, so I chatted with them.  Nook books are also "licensed for use" and not purchased.

Okay, I understand that people need to read the terms of service, but do you know how much time I put into  merely finding the terms of service for these sellers?  As for reading them, iTunes has multiple terms of service per country; Amazon has separate terms of service for each of their digital content offerings; I'm not even certain how many terms of service exist for Barnes and Noble since I read through a few before giving up and going the chat route to find my answer.

And it feels as though all three content providers are attempting to trick the buyers, because on all three websites to get this "licensed" content you press a button labeled "Buy" - even though you are not buying anything, unless you want to word smith their use of buy into license.  I can do that, but I still think it's wrong.

Am I the only one worried about this?  Or do you want to be able to buy and own books, regardless of format?

Review: "One Right Tricky Bastard" by Craig Sottolano

One Right Tricky Bastard by C. M. Sottolano
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Let me be honest up front - the author for this book, Craig Sottolano, is my cousin. Some people might think I'll be nicer to my cousin, and they are almost right. If he wrote a book that I absolutely hated, I'd just delete it from my Goodreads list and never mention it again.

But I did read the book, and I'm keeping here because I am quite proud of this novel.

"One Right Tricky Bastard" blew my mind. The story begins with a magician, Milo Gives (rhymes with "strives") accidentally getting a phone call meant for someone else. A young girl named Pandora is in trouble, and Milo decides to help her, because he really is just that kind of guy.

The novel is set in a different universe - one with magic, fay, angels (though you don't really see them), spirits, and ghosts. The novel begins with a bang, and maintains a nice, steady pace of action the entire way through. The characters all develop nicely throughout the story - even a few who only appear in the end are more than two-dimensional figures. There are a few surprises, but the story foreshadows most twists so the reader doesn't feel jerked around.

As for the ending, well, Craig managed to create a happy ending that was neither sappy nor perfect. I will say that I had a question from quite early in the story that didn't get answered until the end, but it was worth the wait.

I give "One Right Tricky Bastard" four stars.

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