Who inherits your iTunes library?

Who inherits your iTunes library?
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/who-inherits-your-itunes-library-2012-08-23

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Many of us will accumulate vast libraries of digital books and music over the course of our lifetimes. But when we die, our collections of words and music may expire with us.

Apple and Amazon.com grant “nontransferable” rights to use content, so if you buy the complete works of the Beatles on iTunes, you cannot give the White Album to your son and Abbey Road to your daughter.

According to Amazon’s terms of use, “You do not acquire any ownership rights in the software or music content.” Apple limits the use of digital files to Apple devices used by the account holder.

Most digital content exists in a legal black hole....
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Don't use those services. End of story.
You pay = it's yours. That's how it works since Atilla the Hun.
Mrk

 

Some things have changed since Atilla the Hun.

I don´t know about Apple, but in the case of Amazon, the heirs can just continue using the accounts of the dead, in the (improbable) case that they are interested in the same material.

 

I think it conceivable that many collections would have sentimental value and/or non-trivial monetary value. Classic books, music, movies can remain of interest for a long time. Some family and/or friends might want some of it, the deceased or executor might want some to go to a charity, school, or the unfortunate. If nothing else the material could have some value on the open market. Those are options that should not be given up.

 

Exactly!!! How come when I buy a CD for $24.99, I am free to sell it to anyone but the moment I buy the same CD in iTunes and decide to sell it, Hollywood will sue the hell out of me....

 

Sul.

 

It would be nice, but they'll certainly fight it - especially selling it on the open market. At least with a physical CD, usually you can't sell it for as much as it costs new; there's more demand for new items. "Used" digital items wouldn't deprecate in value at all.

 

I'm not aware of any expiration date on iTunes accounts. I don't think apple assigns the account to expire after (xxx number of years). So what's to stop someone from simply transferring the account information? A lot of folks are registering their devices to a single account. I'd imagine this this isn't the only violate of such policies.

People have the same predicament when they want to give away their e-readers. They are suppose to do a factory reset, but how can companies control this?

Intellectual property usurps the justice system. It assumes the thief of "intellectual" property before an actual crime can be committed. In this case, the crime being pirating the content to a friends device. If a company wants to add DRM protection to limit reproduction this is equivalent to a store security tagging merchandise to prevent thief. But when a company prevents the user from accessing and transferring purchased content to any device they own. Then it crosses a very important boundary. Thankfully PCs can access content such as Amazon content through e-readers. We could say well just don't buy from that company. But ignoring the issue encourages this behavior from other companies. This would be like book stores selling you a hard back book inside of a library. You can read it in the library, but you can not take it home or where ever else you want to read it. Can we honestly say this is right? If we applied this perspective of justice to other cases it would be overturned.

Just my honest opinion, but I see nothing stopping me from passing on my collection(s).