When you 'buy' an app, movie, song, or book from Apple, you are not buying ownership of it — you are buying a limited, non-transferable license to use it only on your Apple devices under Apple's rules.
Consumers who believe they own purchased digital content actually hold only a revocable license, meaning Apple retains the ultimate right to restrict or remove access, and consumers have no right to resell or transfer their digital libraries.
How other platforms handle this
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You cannot sell, give, or transfer your purchased digital content to anyone else, and Apple can revoke your access to it under certain circumstances, meaning your 'purchase' is far less permanent than buying a physical product.
REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: The licensing-not-sale characterization of digital content transactions has significant implications under the first-sale doctrine (17 U.S.C. §109), which does not apply to licensed content, effectively preventing digital resale. The EU Court of Justice (UsedSoft v. Oracle, C-128/11) established that exhaustion of distribution rights may apply to certain digital downloads, creating tension with Apple's licensing model for EU users. The EU Digital Content Directive 2019/770/EU treats such licensing arrangements as service contracts with attendant consumer protection requirements. FTC Act Section 5 may apply to any deceptive presentation of 'purchase' that implies ownership rights consumers do not actually receive.
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