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We Don't Really Own the Digital Possessions That We Buy Online

posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday July 01 2020, @02:26PM   Printer-friendly
from the gone-with-the-wind dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.iafrikan.com/2020/06/30/do-we-really-own-our-digital-possessions/

During 2019, Microsoft announced that it will close the books category of its digital store. While other software and apps will still be available via the virtual shop front, and on purchasers' consoles and devices, the closure of the eBook store takes with it customers' eBook libraries. Any digital books bought through the service – even those bought many years ago – will no longer be readable after July 2019. While the company has promised to provide a full refund for all eBook purchases, this decision raises important questions of ownership.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by hendrikboom on Wednesday July 01 2020, @04:33PM (1 child)

    by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 01 2020, @04:33PM (#1015053) Homepage Journal

    Maybe a decade pf two ago, there was an idealistic music site (called irate? or urate? or something?) that stored a database full of free/libre music. And it has a recommendation engine. You got to rate the music it provided you, and it would thereafter compare your ratings to other peoples' in order to find other music that was appreciated but other people with similar tastes to yours.

    I have lost any links I had to that site. I don't even know if it still exists.

    It had a steep learning curve. Not that it was hard to use. Its learning curve, not mine. But it took too long to figure out what I liked, so I kept getting random crap and I gave up on it. I may not have stuck with it long enough to train it; and too few others may have stuck with it for it to acquire any ratings for it to compare with mine.

    -- hendrik

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Wednesday July 01 2020, @06:49PM

    by Freeman (732) on Wednesday July 01 2020, @06:49PM (#1015113) Journal

    As far as music goes there's:
    https://musopen.org/music/ [musopen.org]
    https://www.mutopiaproject.org/ [mutopiaproject.org]

    Haven't heard of anything other than eMusic [emusic.com] targeting more recent music. eMusic used to be much more idealistic with regards to DRM-Free things, but they were required a while ago. Since then, they seem more like just another mark in someone's portfolio. In any event, I used to hear about eMusic every now and again, recently I've heard nothing about them. Could be the MAFIAA err..., however you spell that music association acronym, decided it was simpler to just buy them.

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"