Digital Ownership

I have encountered the idea of ownership and digital objects in an odd roundabout way. I have been very resistant to the idea of paying for an ebook. I mark it down to an irrational notion really. I am paying for the same content, just in a different format. Yet somehow it just feels different. Paying for and then receiving a physical book feels like a completed transaction, it is tangible and I feel like I have gotten my money’s worth. Paying for and then downloading an ebook just doesn’t feel the same. The notion of ownership is different. Ebooks just seem so ephemeral and limited, you can only read it on a device, and you cannot really interact with the page. It exists as a file on a computer, compared to a book on a shelf. With my paper book I can easily access it (without worry of battery power or Wi-Fi access), make notes in it, I can share it, I can proudly display it. It is this last point especially that stands out. Thinking of grandiose coffee table books and large ornate bookshelves filled with beautifully bound books- all confirming to anyone who sees, that you the owner, are a scholarly and learned person, rich in knowledge and disposable income. Digital books lack the (sometimes) ostentatious and outward communication: look at what I am reading/have read. With the ebook there can also be the loss of the design aspect. With a paper book there is the book jacket, complete with the author’s portrait and glowing reviews. The text is typeset on a specific type of paper of a chosen size. Surely it has happened to you, you noticed someone reading a book and the cover or the title intrigued you. This aspect of the visual is lost with ebooks.  There is a lack of information transmission. With my paper book, I could flip to the back and see other books by the author. From the reviews I can (maybe) find similar authors. On the flipside however, there is discretion and a certain level of privacy with ebooks.

A non-book example that comes to mind is about downloadable content for video games. If I wanted to I could easily lend out my copy of GTA V to anyone else with a PS3. However the extras for the game (so-called “downloadable content” or DLC) that I bought and downloaded from the Playstation Store are only accessible to me, or anyone with my account login. Both are purchased video games but the physical disc is easier to share and/or migrate to a new PS3 if my old one ever breaks. I could re-download the DLC to the new PS3 but it is not that straightforward and requires log-ins and installations. Whereas with the disc I just pop it in.

This notion of ownership of digital content is quite muddied when it comes to the purchase/download of software. I would never go into a store and steal a software disc, but for a long time I was running a pirated copy of Adobe Photoshop CS5[1]. Eventually they locked out my serial. It never felt like stealing, there was nothing tangible there. Things only got further muddied when, due to an irreparable error, Adobe released the whole CS2 suite for free download with no serials required because they could not support it. Now I legally run Photoshop CS2 for free, sorry, without them checking my serials. They do not refer to it as being “free.”

 REFERENCES

Kessler, Topher. “Adobe Releases Creative Suite 2 For Free.” CNET.com. Last modified January 7, 2013. https://www.cnet.com/news/adobe-releases-creative-suite-2-for-free/

Power, Alan. “From Protection to Promotion: The Uses of the Book Jacket.” In Books for Sale: The Advertising and Promotion of Print Since Fifteenth Century, edited by Robin Myers, Michael Harris, and Giles Mandelbrote, 123-144. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2009.

Raustiala ,Kal and Chris Sprigman. “Copying Is Not Theft.” Freakonomics. Last modified April 2, 2012. http://freakonomics.com/2012/04/02/copying-is-not-theft/

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[1] I was a student in a photography program and most of my homework was Photoshop based, I needed it. In retrospect I do not advocate for it, it took way too much time and effort and it was very frustrating. Adobe tends to be very quick to crack down. I am suffering for it now, there is a reason Photoshop CS2 was discontinued.