A new law will force sellers of digital content to make it clear to customers whether they are renting, licensing or buying the product they’re paying for.
With more and more companies selling movies, TV shows, games and music, the waters have become muddied over time as to what the words “buy” and “purchase” actually mean.
Does it mean you’re buying the right to watch a movie for 24 hours?
Foxtel rentals.
Or, you’re buying the right to watch the movie as many times as you want, but only on that platform (say, YouTube).
Or does it mean you’re buying the movie outright, to be played on whatever device takes your fancy, now and into the future?
It used to be simple. You’d go to a shop, buy the VHS or CD or game or DVD, stick it in the player and off you’d go. Move house, no problem. New stereo, no problem. VHS or DVD player breaks down, no problem. Stick it all in storage, no problem.
If you wore something out, you’d replace it. If it was available.
There were licensing restrictions – for example, you couldn’t screen a movie in a bar, or set up a hall and sell tickets – but on a personal user basis it was uncomplicated.
Holding onto vast volumes of hard copies became passe some years ago, as the damn things take up so much space. Their time will come again, but in an era of minimalism – where homes are meant to look as if nobody lives in them – having walls covered in shelves filled with books, and CD and vinyl collections, simply won’t do.
Amazon Terms & Conditions.
The new Californian law – AB 2426: Consumer protection: false advertising: digital goods – was authored by Jacqui Irwin, a Democrat representing Thousand Oaks, who has been in office for a decade.
To be enacted in 2025, it states that unless certain terms are met, it will become unlawful for a “seller of a digital good to advertise or offer for sale a digital good to a purchaser with the terms buy, purchase, or any other term which a reasonable person would understand to confer an unrestricted ownership interest in the digital good, or alongside an option for a time-limited rental”.
The terms include that the “seller receives at the time of each transaction an affirmative acknowledgment from the purchaser” indicating the purchaser is receiving a license to access the digital good; a complete list of restrictions and conditions of the license; that access to the digital good may be unilaterally revoked by the seller if they no longer hold a right to the digital good, if applicable; the seller … states in plain language that buying or purchasing the digital good is a license”.
“As retailers continue to pivot away from selling physical media, the need for consumer protections on the purchase of digital media has become increasingly more important,” Irwin said.
“I thank Governor [Newsom] for signing AB 2426, ensuring the false and deceptive advertising from sellers of digital media incorrectly telling consumers they own their purchases becomes a thing of the past.”
