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275 points starkparker | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.702s | source
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fastball ◴[] No.45134302[source]
> and the fact that despite paying monthly, I never actually owned anything.

FYI, when you purchase digital music through iTunes/Amazon/etc, you still don't actually own anything. You are purchasing a license for personal use, which can be revoked for various reasons.

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cobbzilla ◴[] No.45134621[source]
I thought you could buy songs as downloadable mp3 files on Amazon? Did they stop allowing that?
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fastball ◴[] No.45135037[source]
You can download an MP3, but you still don't "own" it in the conventional sense. You are licensing it, and a downloaded MP3 is how you utilize that license. If that license was revoked for some reason (admittedly not a likely scenario), continuing to have the MP3 on your system would be a violation.

In practice I doubt this would ever be an issue, but just wanted to point out that you effectively never "own" a digital reproduction of something unless you are the actual copyright holder (or the copyright is permissive), and digital copies can be clawed back in a way that a CD or physical book you purchased cannot.

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1. cobbzilla ◴[] No.45137007[source]
My understanding is that it’s basically the same as ripping a CD - I have a perpetual license for personal use.

Of course if I broadcast it publicly or share it on bittorrent I am in violation. But if all I do is keep it in my music library for myself to listen to, it’s OK.

So, while the MP3 is covered by an Amazon license and the ripped CD has an implied fair-use license, those license terms are more-or-less the same.