Can I sell a downloaded song just as I can a CD? The thorny issue of digital ownership was brought to light recently when a story circulated online suggesting that actor Bruce Willis was going to sue Apple because he couldn't legally bequeath his iTunes music collection to his family. The story was without foundation, but the questions it brought up refuse to go away: in the digital era, what do we own, what can we sell, and does it matter?
Most of us idly tick the box before reading the terms and conditions every time we join an online music or movie download service, but we do so at our peril because the hoards of MP3s, downloaded movies and even e-books we've "purchased" don't technically belong to us at all.
The "download" is an intangible good, subject to very different laws.
"Many will be surprised to know that the ownership of digital content is a personal right and may not be passed on to their estate when they pass away," says Tom Scourfield, a partner at the law firm CMS Cameron Mckenna in London. "This is in stark contrast to physical goods, where ownership rights are generally exhausted on first sale, allowing the purchaser the freedom to use or resell that item how they wish."
The almost identical prices for a CD and a download hides the fact that the latter is merely a licence; download an MP3 and you haven't purchased anything tangible.
"It's not like owning a physical CD," says Vanessa Barrett, a commercial lawyer at the London law firm Charles Russell. "All you have is a licence to use them, so whether or not you can pass them to an estate when you die depends on that licence."