In April of 2019 Microsoft decided to close its eBook store, and in doing so taking every book with it. Along with Apple announcing its retirement of the iTunes brand, developments like these call into question, can these companies just take away a product I bought?

Under the First Sale Doctrine of copyright law, once a medium containing copyrighted work is bought, it is yours to keep, sell, or destroy. Thereby, a physical copy of a book, is a trade good and vendible item. However, a clear distinction is made for the digital version of that book, which functionally, legally and culturally are not treated the same.

As Varian (1997) pointed out in the 90s, “information goods” have special characteristics in that although they have large fixed costs of production, they have small variable costs of reproduction. This calls for value-based pricing techniques compares to cost-based, and increases the importance of for differential pricing such as versioning. However, it calls into question, are these eBooks actually goods, or can they be better understood as services. As we have entered what has been heralded the “age of access”, when handing over money to own your book, you are actually only paying for access to the book. According to the terms and conditions of every big eBook store, this book you purchased can be taken away at any moment. When purchasing your book, what you have often actually bought is a non-transferable license to consume that book in restricted ways.

Thereby, when Microsoft decided to close its eBook store – which is treated as a service – it was not recalling the books it had sold, rather it terminated access to them. These books therefore still have intellectual property, just the digital copies disappeared from owners’ libraries. With access-based models becoming the norm, and tech giants wielding increasing power, the question surfaces if these companies should reserve this right to take away content paid for by consumers?

Thereby the moral may be if you really like a book, you may consider picking up a physical copy. Although it may certainly degrade over time, at least it cannot be vaporised simply by a company’s decision to stop their service.

References:

Lee, D. (2019). When this eBook store closes, your books disappear too. [online] BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47810367 [Accessed 17 Oct. 2019].

Mardon, R. (2019). Do we really own anything in the digital age?. [online] The Independent. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/digital-age-ebook-ownership-streaming-a8866981.html [Accessed 17 Oct. 2019].

Stim, R. (2019). What Rights the First Sale Doctrine Gives to a Purchaser of a Copyrighted Work. [online] www.nolo.com. Available at: https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/the-first-sale-doctrine.html [Accessed 17 Oct. 2019].

Varian, H. (1997). Versioning Information Goods. Digital Information and Intellectual Property. [online] Available at: http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~hal/Papers/version.pdf [Accessed 17 Oct. 2019].

The aviation sector is one of the most significant contributors to climate change, accounting for 3% of the EU’s total greenhouse gas emissions, and more than 2% of global emissions. With increasing globalization, and increasing standards of living across the world, by 2020 global international aviation emissions are projected to be around 70% higher than in 2005 (EU, 2019). With legislation already in place to combat these rises, and future legislation possible, this not only increases costs for the airlines but also ultimately the end consumer. With a globalized world and many companies relying on international air travel as part of their operations, a future of unaffordable flights seems terrifying. Here the future of electric commercial planes seems almost dystopian, however developments are gaining momentum with a predicted 200 electrically-propelled aircrafts in production by the end of 2019 (Roland Berger, 2019). Electrified Aircraft Propulsion (EAP) is the use of propulsors (propellers or fans) driven by electric motors to propel aircraft ranging from air taxis to subsonic transports (NASA, 2019). This means airplanes do not have to be solely reliant on fossil fuels, using a distributed electric propulsion system, swappable battery packs with advanced cell chemistry and high aspect ratio wings for energy efficient flights (Roland Berger, n.d.). This opens the industry for new business models, not only reducing the carbon footprint of flying, but also democratizing access to flying worldwide. These planes promise to not only reduce CO2 levels, but are also quieter, safer and with lower maintenance costs. Startup Wright Electric has already teamed up with Easyjet with a vision for electric propulsion for all short flights to be zero emissions within 20 years. To achieve this, there are several technology hurdles to overcome including battery density, efficient electrical systems, system integration and regulation which enable these new systems. Still this technology has a truly disruptive potential, changing both the incumbent travel industry, as well as introducing new segments such as air taxi’s (Roland Berger, n.d.).

References:

EU. (2019). Reducing emissions from aviation. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/transport/aviation_en

NASA. (2019). Electrified Aircraft Propulsion (EAP). Available at: www1.grc.nasa.gov/aeronautics/electrified-aircraft-propulsion-eap/

Roland Berger. (2019). Electric propulsion is finally on the map. Available at: https://www.rolandberger.com/en/Point-of-View/Electric-propulsion-is-finally-on-the-map.html

Roland Berger. (n.d.). Aircraft Electric Propulsion: Electric flight just over the horizon. Available at: https://www.rolandberger.com/en/Insights/Global-Topics/Electric-Propulsion/