Amazon is Update In the United States, its purchasing term for kindle e-books to clarify that customers are licensed for materials, not ownership. Reads the new statement: “By ordering your order, you are buying a license to the material and agreeing to use the terms of the Kindle Store.“This update is specific to American customers; International users continue to look at the previous word, but the message is the same: you are not the owner of it; We are only allowing you to use it.
From 26 February 2025, Amazon Will Close ,Download and transfer through USB“Facility for kindle equipment. This means that users can no longer download the kindle books on their computer for manual transfer, as the access of the purchased material will now depend entirely on Amazon’s cloud infrastructure. This change indicates a subtle truth about ownership and reinforces a simple fact: it is not yours if someone else can take it away.
This is not only an Amazon issue, but also applies to all materials and materials in our current digital age. Your favorite songs and albums on your streaming app cannot be accessed without internet connection. They limit the number of devices you can hear, and they put advertisements until you pay them monthly fees. Gone records, tape, and CDs are the days, although you want you to re -resale, or even give it to a friend.
What does it mean? Ownership is generally understood as an act or status of keeping something. In this case, we are clearly entitled to the material, but it can be replaced or transported from us at any time. This is not the right ownership. Oxford The ownership of the states is defined as “exclusive rights for the use, rights and disposal of property”. Therefore, specificity in ownership is required.
What about other abstract digital items like money or identity? You have to handle your name or social media or email. That is you, this is your online equality, personality and material you have created. You may not have two people with the same name or handle, and that the specificity is applied by a password on the account, but that account can be locked, restricted or removed at any time by Facebook or X’s decisions. What about that money in your bank account? You have it, and you have legal rights, but freeze bank accounts, and governments seize funds all the time. This is not the right ownership.
So I ask again: What does something mean to myself? It is not enough to keep it; It is not enough to have specificity or even legal rights. In fact, for some, you should be able to apply that occupation and uniqueness alone. In the physical world, the enforcement comes down to a large extent for force and danger of violence or real use. Believing notice from the Sheriff Department, armed guards in front of a vault, redistribution of boundaries after war. In digital domains, encryption fulfills this purpose and at the same time, removes the need for violence by making the force ineffective. This creates ownership that cannot be overred with violence. No amount of physical force can break the strong cryptography. A government can seize a server, and a company can close an account, but if the data is encrypted and the key is private, the information remains inaccessible. The only way to reach encrypted assets is through consent.
Encryption does not protect digital ownership only; It changes the nature of power. This removes violence from the equation. Therefore it is so disruptive.
Digital signing in the encrypted system is how you prove ownership and control in the digital world. PGP lets you sign messages and files, proves that they have come from you and have not changed. A decentralized social media protocol Nostr works in the same way. Your post and identity are connected to your personal key, not a company that can ban or remove you. Bitcoin gives an example of this theory. Controlling your private keys means that only you can use and manage your funds. When you sign a bitcoin transaction, only you can use and move your money. No bank can freeze it, no government can seize it without your key. True ownership is about having the power to implement that ownership.
Bitcoin automatically comes to mind “not your key, not your coins”. “Your keys, not your coins” means that if you do not control the private key on your bitcoin, you are not the owner of it. When you place bitcoins on an exchange, there are keys on the exchange, not you. They can freeze your account, limit withdrawal, or lose your funds. Brokerage accounts and retirement accounts with bitcoin ETFs can be frozen or confiscated as any bank account. True ownership means holding your key because then you have complete control over your money, identity and property.
Changes from physical to digital have made access to access but ownership hen. Whether it is books, music, identity, or money, just capturing is the illusion of ownership. Companies can cancel access, governments can confiscate money, and erase platform identity, but encryption changes. The ownership law becomes applied not by a corporation, or an institution, but by mathematics. If you want true digital ownership, the rule is simple: control your keys, or there is another true owner.
This is a guest post by Will Jagar. The opinions expressed are completely of their own and not necessarily reflecting the BTC Inc. or Bitcoin magazine.
