How Good Is Your Insurance Policy On iTunes Downloads?
from the iNsurance dept
As more of our assets take a digital form, questions about defining ownership and property rights have become quite complex. Many in the entertainment industry have taken a contradictory stance, claiming that digital assets should be treated like physical goods on issues like theft and piracy, while denying the right of first sale, when applied to such goods. A question that is bound to become an issue as people buy more digital music and movies is whether one can buy insurance for digital goods. Jerry Brito points to an article about one company, Nationwide, that has announced a new program whereby one can buy insurance for any legally acquired collection of digital music. So, if your house catches fire, and both your computer and iPod melt, you can get reimbursed for all of the money spent at iTunes. It's cool to see an insurance company recognizing the changing nature of personal assets, but this wouldn't be necessary if more services allowed users to download a file multiple times after an initial purchase. If an insurance company really wants to get creative, how about selling a policy that will reimburse you for the cost of your collection if the DRM format you bought your music in stops being supported?Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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What's next?
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download insurance
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Re: download insurance
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Yes
Hahaha....the world IS turned upside-down!
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DRM doesn't blow
Like the nuclear energy vs nuclear weapons debate
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Google steps in...
(it's my job to predict what other companies SHOULD do.. oh snap!!!)
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Re: Yes
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Re: DRM doesn't blow
DRM serves no purpose and will only cause troubles in the future.
I stopped buying music online unless it comes DRM free or I'm only buying one track from a special artist.
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Re:
Didn't you have a proper backup? Its not up to the companies to help us keep our digital data safe. Its up to YOU! I have a extremely large itunes library, 130gb and I have 4 copies of it. Two are backups and two are working copies. I personally wouldn't want my music app to start downloading stuff I didn't ask it to do.
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DRM =
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Yes I had a backup but a little out of date. And what I really mean is not unattended but "self-service" (i.e., I wouldn't have to write in to re-download).
The point is that you can often re-download your purchased music files.
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Its all good now...
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ebooks - fictionwise
I've never used iTunes, but I always assumed it would follow the same model, if it doesn't, then I wouldn't touch it!
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DRM Sucks
I'd go with CDs, but with their overinflated prices and occasional rootkits (Bad Sony, Bad) I don't buy them. DRM'ed music is the only way for me to get individual tracks from artists.
It sucks!
BMR777
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A DRM-free (legal) alternative
eMusic.com - legal, drm-free, to keep music download (no I'm not an investor). Only downside is that the 'evil quaduplets' (sony, emi, etc.) isn't participating. But lots of jazz, blues, classic, indie, country and so on...
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The real point is....
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Re:
Don't get me wrong I believe you should be able to redownload your tracks but the backup responsiblity is on the user. I also think redownloads should have limits. Certainly more than 1 but less than 10.
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AS a former Insurance ............
A word of caution - for any property claim - whether from theft, fire, wind - one must still 'prove' what they owned. It is not fun, but inventory all of your gadgets and their contents, including all other personal property.
also consider, increasing the coverage on your 'personal property' - Saw too many times on total fires, that the homeowner did not have enough coverage to replace all of their belongings. Me thinks this is even more vitally important now, due to all of our gadgets.
The fraudsters make it difficult on us honest folk - they over claim items lost or damaged.
On a Fire Claim, I could take up to 200+ photos!! I would photo the interior, exterior and any piles of debris the firemen had removed from the house to the yard. Many a time those photos were used to 'reconstruct' the houses contents. That antique hunk of furniture claimed, did not exist!!! And that would turn into a Felony!
I know the same can be done for one's HDD and Ipods.
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A DRM-free (legal) alternative
eMusic.com - legal, drm-free, to keep music download (no I'm not an investor). Only downside is that the 'evil quaduplets' (sony, emi, etc.) isn't participating. But lots of jazz, blues, classic, indie, country and so on...
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Re: A DRM-free (legal) alternative
Whoops. Lesson learned: Dont refresh pages containing POST data...
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