Microsoft has announced that itwill end the books categoryof its digital store.
Digital products such as eBooks and digital music are often seen toliberate consumers from the burdens of ownership.
Recent years have seen the emergence of an array of access-based models in the digital realm.
So to what extent do we own the digital possessions that we buy?
These provide the customer with an illusion of ownership while restricting their ownership rights.
Companies such as Microsoft and Apple present consumers with the option to buy digital products such as eBooks.
These long legal agreements arerarely read by consumerswhen it comes to products and services online.
And even if they do read them, they are unlikely to fully understand the terms.
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When purchasing eBooks, the consumer often actually purchases a non-transferable license to consume the eBook in restricted ways.
This is not a one-off occurrence.
There have been many similar instances that raise questions of ownership.
Just last month, social media site MySpace admitted tolosing all content uploaded before 2016.
Illusions of ownership
Once you purchase a physical book, you own it entirely.
So we do not anticipate this scenario in the context of our eBooks.
Yet the digital realm presents new threats to ownership that our physical possessions havent prepared us for.
Consumers need to become more sensitized to the restrictions on digital ownership.
However, companies also have a responsibility to make these fragmented ownership forms more transparent.
Often there is a logical business reason for such restrictions.
This article is republished fromThe ConversationbyRebecca Mardon, Lecturer in Marketing,Cardiff Universityunder a Creative Commons license.
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