I am a senior with a large collection of music and books purchased on iTunes. Can I pass ownership of these to others when I pass on? What are the legal property rights to these electronic products? Are they the same as for real books and CDs? How would I include them in my will?
Here's the official version:
http://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/us/terms.html
From my reading of it (and this is how I interpret it) it only says "you" as in not you and your descendants (if I missed that then tell me where), just you. In this regard iTunes Store purchases seem to be different from CDs.
There would also be technical difficulties. Purchases cannot be merged with other Apple IDs or transferred. Somebody would have to use your AppleID which is possible but would create management problems. Items could probably be shared with relatives but it would have to be done within the framework of Family Sharing which some may not wish to do.
I think it is wise you are thinking of a digital legacy because this is going to be a big 21st century issue. I am making up a document with my usernames and passwords.
Here's the official version:
http://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/us/terms.html
From my reading of it (and this is how I interpret it) it only says "you" as in not you and your descendants (if I missed that then tell me where), just you. In this regard iTunes Store purchases seem to be different from CDs.
There would also be technical difficulties. Purchases cannot be merged with other Apple IDs or transferred. Somebody would have to use your AppleID which is possible but would create management problems. Items could probably be shared with relatives but it would have to be done within the framework of Family Sharing which some may not wish to do.
I think it is wise you are thinking of a digital legacy because this is going to be a big 21st century issue. I am making up a document with my usernames and passwords.
I suspect property law and technology still have some way to go in this regard. The way that protected content is currently provided doesn't allow for the transfer from one account to another. In practice you can probably arrange for one of your relatives to take control of your account as the email address and password combination will remain active and can be used as long as somebody knows them.
tt2
Probably there's hope that everybody will go for subscription services and nobody will actually "own" any permanent copies of anything. đ
You're probably right.
tt2
Thank you. I think I'll go back to buying hard copies.
Electronic property rights
