Amazon has updated its purchase terms for Kindle e-books in the United States to clarify that customers are acquiring a license to content, not to property. The new statement reads: “By placing your order, you are buying a license to the content and accepts the terms of use of the Kindle store.“This update is specific for US customers; international users continue to see the previous formulation, but the message is the same: you don’t have it; we are only allowing you to use it.
Starting from February 26, 2025, Amazon will interrupt the “Download and transfer via USB“Function for Kindle devices. This means that users can no longer download the Kindle books directly to their computers for manual transfer, since access to the content purchased will now depend entirely on Amazon’s cloud infrastructure. This change underlines a subtle truth about the property and strengthens a simple fact: it is not yours if someone else can take it away.
This is not just an Amazon problem, but applies to all content and materials in our current digital era. Your favorite songs and albums on your streaming app cannot be accessible without an Internet connection. They limit the number of devices from which you can listen and insert ads unless you pay a monthly tax. Days of records, tapes and CDs are over who have the freedom to listen to as you want, resell or even give it to a friend.
What does it mean to own something? The property is generally understood as the act or the state of possession of something. In this case, we clearly have the content, but can be modified or taken away by us at any time. This is not true property. The ownership of the states of Oxford is defined as “the exclusive right of using, possessing and disposing of the property”. So exclusivity is required.
What about other intangible digital articles such as money or identity? You own your name or manage social media or the e -mail. It is you, it is your online similarity, person and content you have created. You cannot have two people with the same name or manage and that exclusivity is applied by a password on the account, but that account can be blocked, prohibited or eliminated at any time by the decisions of Facebook or X. What do you say that money in your bank account? You own it and you have legal rights on it, but banks freeze accounts and governments capture the funds continuously. This is not true property.
So I ask again: what does it mean to own something? It is not enough to possess it; Having exclusivity or even legal rights is not enough. To really own something, only you must be able to impose that possession and exclusivity. In the physical world, the application is largely reduced to coercion and threat or effective use of violence. The notice of eviction from the Sheriff Department, the guards armed in the face of once, the redesigning of the borders after a war. In digital domain, encryption is used for this purpose and, at the same time, removes the need for violence making the force ineffective. It creates properties that cannot be overwritten by violence. No quantity of physical strength can break a strong encryption. 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 access encrypted activities is through consent.
Encryption not only protects digital property; Changes the very nature of power. Removes violence from the equation. That’s why it is so disruptive.
The digital signature in encrypted systems is the way in which ownership and control in the digital world is demonstrated. PGP allows you to sign messages and files, showing that they came to you and have not been changed. Nostr, a decentralized social media protocol, works in the same way. Your posts and identities are related to your private key, not a company capable of banning or eliminating you. Bitcoin exemplifies this principle. Control of private keys only means that you can access and manage your funds. When you sign a bitcoin transaction, only you can access and move your money. No bank can freeze it, no government can take it without the key. The real property consists in having the power to enforce this property.
I am reminded of the bitcoin axiom “not your keys, not your coins”. “Not your keys, not your coins” means if you don’t check the private keys to your bitcoin, don’t own it. When keeping bitcoin in an exchange, the exchange contains the keys, not you. They can freeze your account, limit samples or even lose funds. The intermediation accounts and pension accounts with Etf Bitcoin can be frozen or seized as any bank account. The real property means keeping the keys because only then do you have full control over money, identity and property.
The transition from physique to digital has made access easier but the dark property. Whether it’s books, music, identity or money, only having possession is an illusion of property. Companies can revoke access, governments can seize funds and platforms can cancel identities, but encryption changes this. The property becomes executive, not from the laws, a company or an institution, but for mathematics. If you want a real digital property, the rule is simple: to control the keys or someone else is the real owner.
This is a post for Will Jorger’s guests. The opinions expressed are entirely proper and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.