The End of Ownership

Perzanowski and Schultz start off by providing a fine summary and analysis of both how clouds and content streaming work and the implications in terms of ownership and rights.... As the book shows quite beautifully... there is a perverse incentive for many of those involved to keep the whole story as obscure and unfathomable as possible. This analysis -- detailed and impressive -- shows how the combination of law and technology works against the users.

[Perzanowski and Schultz] are expert writers in distilling complicated topics and treating acronyms usually reserved for those in the legal community to be handled by interested laymen.... [I]t's important for consumers looking to make informed decisions to read The End of Ownership -- not just for the legal and economic trivia you will inevitably pick up, but because of how relevant the book already is and, based on current trends, how even more relevant it will become.

This is a lively must-read account of how digital formats have led to an unprecedented transformation of property law. Perzanowski and Schultz are law professors who specialize in intellectual property, and they argue that consumers need to be aware of the tradeoffs that come with the so-called freedom of cloud storage and streaming services.

The End of Ownership presents the confusing world of the digital consumer in wonderfully accessible prose, replacing hideous jargon with the simplest of analogies, from thieving bookshops to the goblins from Harry Potter. It will answer the questions you have regarding digital ownership, and it's inevitable that more than a few of them have never even crossed your mind. In an increasingly complex world, plagued by unreadable (certainly unread) terms and conditions, it is more than a little refreshing to have something explained in good, plain English.