Gov. Newsom signs law forcing digital stores to admit you’re buying media licenses only

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KFSN) — A new California law will require online stores to disclose you are purchasing licenses for digital games, movies, music, and ebooks, not owning them.

It’s an effort to make customers aware that many digital purchases can be revoked. For example, the digital movie you’ve bought recently could disappear because you only bought a license to view it, not own it.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 2426, banning digital storefronts from using words such as “buy” or “purchase” unless customers are informed they do not own the media.

This can be done by either obtaining acknowledgment from customers that the digital good can be revoked if the seller no longer holds the right to the product or by providing a statement before each transaction that buying a digital good is a license with a link providing full details on the license.

According to the bill’s author, Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, the legislation is aimed at ensuring consumers have a full understanding of what they are buying.

“When a consumer purchases an online digital good like a movie or TV show, they receive the ability to view the media at their leisure,” Irwin said. “Oftentimes, the consumer believes that their purchase has given them permanent ownership of that digital good, similar to how the purchase of movie on a DVD or a paperback book provides access in perpetuity. In reality though, the consumer has only purchased a license, which, according to the seller’s terms and conditions, the seller can revoke at any point.”

Companies that break the new law could be fined for false advertising. It will not apply to stores that offer “permanent offline” downloads.

The law is set to go into effect next year.