Ownership is an outmoded concept for some products of the digital age. Once music, movies or this newspaper are turned into digital bits and reproduction and distribution costs fall essentially to zero, rights of access become more important than rights of ownership.

Yet old consumer mindsets around ownership have been one barrier to the creation of more stable business models in the digital media industry, especially music. Subscription and advertising-supported businesses that grant blanket rights of access to entire libraries of content make more sense in the long run, yet most consumers still want the comfort of feeling that they “own” their digital music outright. While that has turned Apple’s iTunes store into the second-biggest US music retailer, it has also had the more devastating effect of making music piracy rampant.