Microsoft recently shut down the e-book section of its online store and made all purchased content unavailable. While the company issued full refunds to customers for all books purchased, the shutdown became painfully clear: Most subscription services provide a license to use the content, but you don’t actually own the content itself. And if the company decides to shut down the service, then all that content could be gone forever.
Microsoft released a detailed FAQ informing customers that no books will be available for purchase, rental, or pre-order after April 2nd, and that no books will be readable after July. In July, Microsoft would start introducing refunds. Even free books didn’t survive the shutdown; the service itself has closed its doors, meaning no e-books, paid or otherwise, will be available to customers.
You might think that not all companies adhere to this policy. After all, doesn’t Netflix let you download content for offline viewing? And doesn’t Apple let you download and record music?
Some companies does allow users to keep downloaded content forever, even if that content otherwise disappears from the storefront. But there are caveats to that ownership. If you’re interested in keeping your paid content forever, check out these services.
Steam
A number of games have been pulled from the Steam store for various reasons, but even if the game is no longer available for purchase, you’ll keep the copy you have in your library. In rare cases, the games you’ve purchased may not be available for download, but often you’ll still be able to download titles long after they’ve gone on sale.
If you’re not sure, pop in an external hard drive and download the games you’re afraid of losing.
GOG.com
GOG.com is built on the concept of DRM-free ownership. They present their storefront with the guarantee that customers own the game free and clear after purchasing it. While there’s always the argument that only the developer actually owns the game – as in the actual code – your game download is yours forever, even if GOG.com goes away one day. As long as you have the files downloaded, they are yours to keep and play.
Apple
You can download iTunes songs (until the service shuts down for good, anyway) and burn them to disc. At that moment, the media is yours forever. Even if it disappears from the storefront, it exists on physical media — and ultimately, physical media is the single best way to guarantee ownership of any digital content. But more on that later.
When it comes to media other than music, things are not so clear. According to Apple’s Terms and Conditions, “you may burn an audio playlist of purchased music to disc for listening purposes up to seven times; this restriction does not apply to DRM-free content. Other content may not burn to disc.”
The language in the Terms and Conditions indicates that the apps and other content other than the music are not yours, but are licensed to you. Specifically with respect to e-books, “… which means that you acquire a license to use the Content from Apple Distribution International, but the Content is licensed by the Publisher.” The Content is licensed to you; you don’t own it forever, which means there’s no guarantee that the books can’t be downloaded from your devices.
An important difference is the language of Apple’s support page.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
In legal terms, “can always” does not mean “always will”. However, it is rare for content to be downloaded from the device. Once downloaded, as long as you don’t delete the app, you’ll likely be able to access it. Just ask the one in ten people in the world who still have a device with the original Flappy Bird installed.
Archive.org
Archive.org is a repository of DRM-free content. At the time of writing, a movie search returns more than 5.1 million results. One thing to keep in mind is that not all of these are feature films; in fact, only 6,405 items fall into the feature film category. However, there is an incredible amount of legal digital content that you can download and watch without worrying about losing it.
Smashwords
Smashwords is a site that is mostly used for self-published authors, but many more well-known writers can be found on the site. Smashwords prides itself on being a DRM-free service. Once you buy a book on the site, it’s yours. It’s also a great way to discover new writers, as the site’s front page has a “Featured New Releases” section that provides a quick look at the latest releases.
Humble Bundle
Humble Bundle started as a video game distribution service. Customers would spend a certain amount and the majority would go to charity. In return, the Humble Bundle would give them a selection of DRM-free games. The service has since expanded to include books, software and more. Everything is DRM-free and everything is based on a tiered pricing system. There are usually three tiers of prizes to choose from, each offering additional rewards over the previous one.
A note about physical media
Physical media is the best way to ensure long-term ownership of digital media. Burning music and files to a CD ensures that you retain ownership of the content stored there, as long as it does not have DRM protection. Any content with DRM protection will perform a “check” to confirm that your license is still valid. If that check returns a negative answer, you lose access.
On the other hand, DRM-free content will remain yours as long as you have the files. Storing it on an external hard drive is another option, but it’s always good to have a physical backup.
While Microsoft intends to issue full refunds to all customers for content they lose access to, this is not something consumers should rely on other companies to do. It’s far better to focus on buying content that you own, rather than something licensed for temporary use only.
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Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn