All you are doing is licensing it.
A new rule that requires digital marketplaces to make it more transparent to clients when they are just acquiring a license to access material has been signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom of the state of California. The regulation will only apply to the all-too-common scenario of purchasing digital copies of video games, music, movies, television series, or ebooks from an online retailer. It will not apply to situations in which downloads are considered to be permanent offline downloads. The Verge was the first to report on the new development, which may result in marketplaces being subject to sanctions for misleading advertising in the state if they fail to use wording that is clear and concise when explaining the restrictions that are associated with access. In other words, once the rule goes into effect in 2025, you won’t be able to find phrases like “buy” or “purchase” in any of the transactions.
New parallel concerns regarding ownership and preservation of material in the current day have been raised as a result of the transition to digital shops. One of the most recent examples of how customers can abruptly lose access to media that they assumed they owned is the decision made by Ubisoft to remove The Crew from players’ libraries after the servers for the game were shut down. The newly enacted law in California will neither prevent instances such as the disappearance of The Crew from occurring, nor will it prevent the damage caused by those losses from occurring. By doing so, however, it becomes more apparent that ownership of digital media is a rather uncommon and intangible concept.
The week has been extremely hectic for Governor Newsom. In addition, he last week signed two legislation that provide rights against unwelcome artificial intelligence likenesses of performers, both living and deceased. Yesterday, he signed the “click to cancel” bill that the state has passed.