Is Your iTunes Library Really Yours?

In today’s digitally-based world, especially the next generation is accumulating digital libraries that contain tens of thousands of songs, movies, and ebooks. The question is, though, once purchased, are they really yours? At the end of the day, literally, these songs and ebooks may not be yours to do with what you please. iTunes and Amazon.com grant users a non-transferable license to the songs and books that you download, which works just fine when you are listening to them on your iPod, iPad, or iPhone. But when a user passes away, those songs and books are not theirs to bequeath as a physical library of books and records would be.

Assets are becoming increasingly digitized, as it is estimated that consumers in the United States spend about $30 a month and $360 a year on MP3 files and ebooks, according to e-commerce company Bango. Apple, Inc. has reported sales of over 300 million iPods and 84 million iPads since the launch of those products. It is also estimated that Kindle Fire holds a quarter of the tablet market in the U.S., although Apple does not release those sales figures.

While there are obviously loopholes for gaining access to digital libraries involving transfer of files from one computer to another or just using the owner’s passwords, assuming you have them, experts are now calling for legal reform to state laws to account for advances in technology and the development of digital assets. One lawyer out of Jacksonville, Florida, David Goldman, plans to soon launch software structured for estate planners, called DapTrust, to help these estate planners create a legal on-line trust account for music, e-books, and movies. While other software provides for on-line safety-deposit boxes, this software purports to provide instructions for creating a legal trust, and thus gives both access and the right to use the digital content.

Whether or not this software is the answer, the fact remains that the law is far behind the current state of digital assets.

Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/who-inherits-your-itunes-library-2012-08-23?pagenumber=1

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