I have an unholy number of digital objects (mostly movies but some TV series) in my Apple account. When I look at the number, I think of the thousands of dollars spent over the last decade and wince. Not for the favorites, but for all those movies that I haven’t watched a second time and most especially for those I could barely get through the first time.
My partner has been on an expedition of sorts recently. He’d like a few books for reference and digital copies—those that can be annotated and highlighted—are preferable. But, the problem with the digital object is, except for rarities you can buy directly from the publisher, you don’t own them.
As with our movie collection, most eBooks are licensed. Now, Big Tech will use semantics and state that you don’t own physical books either. The copyright remains with the author. Pretending to not understand the question/dilemma is a hallmark of our times, isn’t it? It’s infuriating. So I’ll be clear. I am referring to the object. I can hold a physical object in my hand. I can put it into someone else’s hand when I’m done with it. I might even be able to sell it. If my film collection were physical, there are lots of titles I could part with. Alas, they’ll die with my account.
Because physical object vs. digital object has cropped up in conversation lately, it’s only natural we started to take inventory. What films do we want to keep? We’ve started a list. If our internet goes down and we’re in the middle of a movie night, c’est la vie. We watch on.