Cleaning up the digital rights chaos

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Increasingly more consumers are purchasing digital products such as music and films on CDs, DVDs and in the form of legally downloaded files. As digital consumers, you are not protected by any legislation and it is therefore impossible to know what is legitimate and when the law has been broken. As a link in the campaign against the chaos related to digital rights, the Norwegian Consumer Council is today introducing your digital rights.

Kristin Thilesen Informasjonsrådgiver/webredaktør, 26.03.2007 15:36

Increasingly more consumers are legally downloading music and films from the Internet. The rights you have as a customer are governed by the agreement you have entered into, the technology of the content and legislation.

“The problem is that today, as a digital consumer, you have very few rights. When physical objects such as CDs and DVDs are purchased in a shop, as a consumer, you are protected by Norwegian Consumer Purchases Act. However, these rights disappear when the same CD is purchased as a file via the Internet. The Norwegian Consumer Council is therefore of the opinion that digital output should be covered by the Norwegian Consumer Purchases Act (Forbrukerkjøpsloven), no matter how it is delivered. When in addition Norwegian legislation concerning intellectual property is very unclear and few people know what actually is in the agreement and technology, there is no doubt that being a consumer in today’s digital community is very difficult,” says Torgeir Waterhouse, Senior Adviser at the Norwegian Consumer Council.

To clean up in this digital rights chaos, the Norwegian Consumer Council today introduced eight mandatory rights that will make it easier to be a digital consumer.

Incomprehensible agreements and technical barriers

To purchase cultural content via the Internet as a consumer you must accept an agreement. However, very few people actually read this agreement. Most people thus accept conditions without knowing what actually is acceptable.

“The terms and conditions are written in a language that is incomprehensible to most people and often quite extensive – only a few people actually take the time to familiarise themselves with these,” says Torgeir Waterhouse, Senior Adviser at the Norwegian Consumer Council.

Technical barriers to the content are also very significant for how you actually can use the content you download.

“File formats and technical barriers determine which players you can use and to what degree you can make a backup of the content. Only a very few people understand the consequences of different file formats and technical barriers,” says Waterhouse.

No legislation

When a physical object such as a CD or a DVD is purchased, as the consumer, you are protected in accordance with the Consumer Purchases Act. If you however download the same CD or DVD content from the Internet, there is great uncertainty involved with what regulations apply in the event the file contains errors.

“Downloading services are not covered by the Consumer Purchases Act and the lack of legislation means that the consumer is not ensured reasonable protection,” says Waterhouse.

The Storting is currently discussing a possible extension of the Consumer Purchases Act to also include downloading services. Such an extension would ensure that basic consumer protection regulations would also apply to the digital sphere. The government however has opposed this.

“If there is no extension of the Consumer Purchases Act, we risk having a situation in which consumers will have no legal rights in the digital community we are now entering. It is unacceptable that consumers are protected by legislation if they purchase a CD from a web shop, but not protected if they download the same content from the same web shop,” says Waterhouse.

Unclear intellectual property legislation

The Norwegian Copyright Act determines the legitimate use of cultural content such as music, films and images. However, this Act provides the owners of the rights with extensive protection while the consumers’ interests are inadequately addressed; which again results in an imbalance between the trade and consumers. The Act is also very unclear.

“A survey made by the consumer magazine, Forbruker-rapporten, revealed that even experts in the field are uncertain about how to interpret the Act. How could consumers then possibly know what was allowed? Since a violation of the Copyright Act is punishable, this means that the consumer risks criminal liability for violations that not even copyright experts can agree are violations,” notes Waterhouse.

Your Digital Rights

Today, the Norwegian Consumer Council has launched eight mandatory rights that will make it easier to be a consumer in the digital community.

“The objective is to provide clear, reasonable rights that the normal consumer can relate to. To ensure that as many people as possible are able to make use of the technological development in the best possibly manner, it is necessary to re-establish the balance between the trade and consumers. No one benefits from the chaos that has ruled until now,” says Waterhouse.

The Norwegian Consumer Council considers that you as consumer should be able to:

1. – make a backup copy

2. – watch and listen to content when you want to

3. – move content between players

4. – convert content to an appropriate format

5. – adapt equipment

6. – use digital content without being monitored

7. – make use of public and private services

8. – make use the technology necessary to exercise your digital rights

For more information about your digital rights, read the article Consumers Digital Rights.

(Foto: Tank)