Photo: CHRISTOF STACHE/AFP via Getty Images
The internet has done a doozy on language over the last 20 years and we’re not just referring here to the advent of the humble “lol”. Even supposedly simple words like “buy” or “rent,” when filtered through the minds of corporate lawyers and online storefronts, can get pretty twisted, something made clear today as Apple finds itself dragged toward court over allegations that it’s not at all clear what the company meant when it offered to allow customers to “buy” content on iTunes or its other digital marketplaces.
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The crux of the question comes down to the fact that what you’re buying when you purchase just about any digital content online is not a product, but a license; a license that, yes, grants you access to your song or film or what have you, but which also contains certain restrictions. Most notably, those restrictions include Apple’s ability to yank said content from their servers, rendering