Although we can buy DRM free music, the same cannot be said for Digital magazines, many eBooks, and eMagazines. DRM continues to proliferate and get more restrictive.

For the record, I applaud an individual’s right to protect their spiritual works, and to profit by them. I will not get in to an argument about rights assingments, but simply the principal of the authors rights. 

I also believe in the right of purchase.

• I do not rent a book, I buy it. 
• I do not rent an LP or CD album, I buy it. 
• I do not rent a magazine, I buy it. 
• I do not rent a home, I buy it. 
• As Microsoft states, I buy Office 365, even as in their evil empire tactics, they turn it off if I don’t pay every year. The mafia does something similar, I think they call it extortion. 

If I break any of these items, I repair, or buy new copies. I believe the same should be true for Digitized versions of the same items. 

If I wanted to rent, I would, and I should be held liable and pay the consequences for breaching distribution. 

Since I don’t rent, but buy, then I expect to own the package for ever, to pass it on to my inheritors/heirs, to resell, and be able to read and use that single copy as I see fit. 

And therein lies the problem. Some eMagazines have even gone the way of the web. If I want to read a magazine I own, I can only do so from a locked browser session and from their server. Doesn’t that mean I no longer own it?  If I can’t move the material from one digital storage location to another, to physically hold the media containing the works I’ve paid for, how is that ownership?

If I have a book or magazine, album, etc, I can hold the media and move it place to place. I am not necessarily reading it unless I open it and physically start reading, listening, or watching. But I have the freedom to move it, dust it, protect it, and if I take the time duplicate it in to my own medley selection an so forth. I can also sell it if I don’t want it any more. 

So how do my rights translate to DRM media?  Or worse, online, cloud media?

Is there a philosopher who can attempt an explanation?  A lawyer perhaps?