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Hi All,<br>
The latest Which? magazine has an article about inheriting digital
downloads (and that fact that, no surprise to most here, you have no
rights to pass these on). I wrote a letter to the editor as
follows:-<br>
<br>
<font face="Times New Roman">Hi,<br>
I just read the article by Sarah Kidner regarding downloads, and
your rights (or lack of) with regard to passing these on.<br>
I have been aware of this problem for a long time, and have
avoided anything Apple and DRM for that reason. The same problem
exists of course for ebook formats.<br>
Until we get a change in the law allowing some fair use, it is
necessary to ensure you only use "open" rather than proprietary
formats, something which up to now your magazine has been very
poor at pointing out.<br>
In nearly all cases, free versions of software and data formats
exist which you never mention. They may not always be as good, or
as full featured, but it is hard to argue with the value of zero
cost, and ability to transfer for free. At the very least they
deserve a mention or greater prominence. This is the kind of
competition which also makes all major companies think carefully
before locking things down so much it becomes anti-consumer.<br>
Anyway, I hope I am not the only one to point this out and look
forward to more coverage of the alternatives to Microsoft, Apple
etc in the future.<br>
All the best,</font><br>
<br>
They want to publish this in the next issue to gauge the interest in
more articles about this subject. Any others interested please feel
free to chip in your 2p.<br>
<br>
The online version of the original article (with comments) is here:-<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://conversation.which.co.uk/technology/digital-download-legal-rights-after-death-amazon-itunes-apple/">http://conversation.which.co.uk/technology/digital-download-legal-rights-after-death-amazon-itunes-apple/</a><br>
<br>
Roger G<br>
<br>
<br>
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