Whose bits are they?

When i buy digital bits, books, music, films, whose are they?

Are they mine, my own copy to do what I like with - respecting the laws of copyright… or are they just a big library in the sky and what I have bought is just a licence to read, listen or view?

This seems to me to be the core of the issues surrounding big media fighting the consumer today. Big media wants to control the distribution of the bits, consumers want to have them as their own to use as they think fit.

For example,

I buy a DVD, but I cannot get at the bits on it because they are "protected" by some simple encryption called DRM. I can break into this using a software on my computer (Handbrake) but strictly speaking this is illegal under the Digital Economy Act in UK and under various international treaties of the WTO/WIPO, and threatened to be strengthened by the new treaty ACTA which is not yet agreed by the EU, even if the UK government and many others have signed up to the text.

The restrictions about the use of the bits on the DVD, that I must use a licensed DVD player which has inside it the software to decode the encryption, and that the output bits from the DVD to my TV have to be further encrypted over the HDMI cable connecting the two, imposes a severe restriction on the bit I thought I had bought for myself.

Surely there are really just two clear cases:

1 I bought the bits and they are mine to do whatever I want with them. I can pass them to someone else, just as I can give a physical book, or a DVD, providing I don't keep a copy myself, but just move the bits to someone elses computer (to respect copyright).

The music industry is breaking down barriers as they do not today encrypt music and you can download it and they let you do whatever you want with it, except it is still illegal to make a copy for someone else. Again things are breaking down, as a few musicians see making copies as a way of promoting themselves, and attracting people to purchase apermanent copy or CD, or to come to live concerts. So downloading a music file is seen more like listening to it on the Radio.

But this is not happening for movies or books.

2 the bits are not mine, but just 'on loan' like a library book of DVD and I have a licence to read or view, but I must return them in a limited time.

Buying a movie on iTunes is like this, I buy the right to view it provided I start within 30 days, and can view it as many times as I like within 24hours from when I first start. This is controlled by encryption (Apple's Fairplay).

The explosion of ebooks is tightly controlled today, byt the biggest houses (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple) who all impose restrictions by using encryption on what you can do with the bit you "purchase".

So whose bits are they? This issue is just one of the many that is clouding the arguments today about the imposition of 19th century copyright laws in todays world.