California will force companies to admit you don't own digital content

dantheclamman@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 443 points –
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tl;dr

California's new law will require digital storefronts to clarify that consumers are buying licenses, not outright ownership of digital goods.

The law forces companies to use distinct language when selling digital media to specify license terms to avoid false advertising fines.

The law goes into effect next yea, but won't apply to companies that offer “permanent offline downloads” of digital goods.

“permanent offline downloads”

How can anyone offer that?

(C )Any digital good that is advertised or offered to a person that the seller cannot revoke access to after the transaction, which includes making the digital good available at the time of purchase for permanent offline download to an external storage source to be used without a connection to the internet.

It shouldn't be that hard, gog.com manages to do it

Oh I thought they meant having the content permanently available for download, which is impossible. Thanks for the clarification!

That said, GOG releases is the most common kind on torrent trackers where there are any.

So - there is virtue to commercial concerns, but not in the way that assropes customers.

They might be the most common because they're the easiest, but there are also still plenty of people actually paying for the games. I'll never be convinced that piracy is an actual threat to making money. Piracy has never been easier, just see /c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com for proof, and yet pretty much all forms of entertainmment are as profitable as ever.

  • GoG
  • Itch.io
  • BandCamp
  • iTunes Music Store (it’s still around but can be hard to find because of Apple Music streaming service)
  • Amazon’s music store (but it’s crap quality and they put audio watermarks in it - don’t use them while the two above options exist)
  • Comixology before Amazon bought and deleted them
  • Occasionally there are websites where you can purchase video content for download, but it’s quite rare. I remember buying anime from such a site before.