[Wylug-discuss] Which? magazine

[Roger Greenwood]

Hi All,
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:-

Hi,
I just read the article by Sarah Kidner regarding downloads, and your 
rights (or lack of) with regard to passing these on.
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.
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.
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.
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.
All the best,

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.

The online version of the original article (with comments) is here:-

http://conversation.which.co.uk/technology/digital-download-legal-rights-after-death-amazon-itunes-apple/

Roger G


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