I feel a real twit and rather angry.      I subscribe to a few of the model railway magazines in digital format, it's real advantage to someone who lives miles away with a dreadful postal service.

At the beginning of last year I subscribed to Railway Modeller and was very impressed with the magazine and the app, especially as it gave access to back issues. In February I decided to end the subscription as our currency took a nosedive and I had to cut down on magazines.

I have now discovered that the issues that I thought I had 'bought' are not available to read and that RM digital subscriptions are unlike those of the other mags, you have to keep on subscribing to read your magazines. I have been told that the app is similar to Spotify and Netflix ( I've heard of them but have never used them so had no idea how they work.)

I had assumed that all digital subscriptions are alike. I checked in a paper copy of RM and could find no reference to how the digital subscription is structured which I find a bit misleading.

So I'll stick to BRM and Model Rail for now.

Regards

Veronica.

PS. I'm going to dye my hair blonde 

If any of the other 'protected' magazines change their mind, or go bust or their Digital supplier goes bust then you are likely to lose them all as well.

This has happened repeatedly with digital music and video sites, although for the most part the music industry has given up trying to inflict unusable crap on people and just sells MP3 files.

One reason I don't subscribe to any of them, the other being that if I spent the same money buying pre 1980 99p issues at random off ebay I'd get a far better product and content!

Quote from: silly moo on March 04, 2014, 12:50:03 PM
I have now discovered that the issues that I thought I had 'bought' are not available to read and that RM digital subscriptions are unlike those of the other mags, you have to keep on subscribing to read your magazines.

Yes, I was caught out like that after I bought one issue I was particularly interested in.  To put it politely, my attitude towards these people in the same as it would be to anyone who had burgled my house or mugged me in the street.

Avoid like the plague!

That's quite wrong. When you subscribe to a digital version you 'buy' the intellectual property in exactly the same way as you do when you buy the paper edition, it's the medium that is different not the material. The copyright is that of the publishing company. 

'Netflix' is entirely different. It rents out third party material either on the web or on disk which remains the property of the rental company.

Mark K
(I'm a magazine publisher BTW - I couldn't imagine taking away something that had been paid for.)

This is part of the answer I got from Exact Editions:

"Your subscription to Railway Modeller expired on 14th February 2014.

As such you are no longer able to access the Railway Modeller app. And are not able to download any issues anymore.

Exact Editions subscriptions work on an access model basis, similar to Spotify or Netflix. This means that for the duration of your subscription you can access an archive of back issues as well as each new issue. However Exact Editions subscription do not sell permanent access to specific issues."

I wouldn't have minded much if I knew all this when I first subscribed, I'm sure there is an explanation somewhere in the Terms and Conditions in 4pt Vanishing but it certainly isn't very clear when you read the ad in the magazine or elsewhere. i suppose it's a case of buyer beware.

Regards

Veronica.

Quote from: Mark K on March 04, 2014, 01:38:59 PM
That's quite wrong. When you subscribe to a digital version you 'buy' the intellectual property in exactly the same way as you do when you buy the paper edition

No you do not. If you investigate the small print most of these 'digital magazines' merely license you use of the application and data. It's like Amazon's kindle - you don't *own* anything.

There is a specific difference between purchasing a physical object containing copyrighted material, and licensing a digital copy of a work. In the latter case you don't own it, you can't resell your copy, you don't control what you can do with it, it can't be inherited, and most rights relating to product quality don't apply either. That's why software CDs warrant that the CD media is fault free but the software can be complete junk without any recourse to fixing it.

This is also btw why you get all the stupid rules about where you can use/buy such content. First sale rights do not apply, as it's not sold, thus you can't buy a box of them in the USA and ship them into the EU as you can with paper books.

It is possible that there may be a case you "own" content licensed to you permanently. It's not clear. The European Court decided for one software case (Oracle) that this was the case. Nobody has AFAIK entirely figured out the ramifications. The law is (as usual) still catching up with things.

As a magazine publisher you may choose to give people all the equivalent rights of the paper copy (eg resale on ebay) but it's not an implicit part of the transaction.

Alan

Thanks for the warning - I was considering adding the digital edition of RM to my subscription portfolio - I think I'll go back to buying the paper version in Smudgers...

I was thinking about going digital with Railway modeler but as with most things connected with computers and their driving software, the terms and conditions are predatory. I wish consumers would start to tell these guys to get lost more often. Should we start a petition or something ?

For those wishing to complain specifically about Railway Modeller I would suggest you write to Steve Flint at RM

I don't know whether complaining to MR would help much as they've always been a bit different. Years ago they refused to put website addresses on to advertisements. 

I imagine they are locked into some agreement with Exact Editions. What I will do is ask Steve Flint that they explain how the subscription works in their adverts.

I expect that most of their digital subscribers don't have any idea what will happen once they stop their subscription.

As an exercise I went to the Zinio app I have on my iPad, I haven't used it since 2011 but I can still access and read all the editions of Hornby Magazine I bought then.

The other magazines I subscribe to have been bought via Pocketmags and I am able to buy single editions or subscribe for various lengths of time. I have bought quite a few single editions of non railway magazines that I wanted to try out.

They are all still there. Touch Wood.

I have sent an email to Railway Modeller asking that they explain clearly how their digital subscription system works in future advertisements and promotions.

Well i was thinking of subscribing to digital mags, but after that information I will stick to my paper format, thanks for the information Veronica, just goes to show allways read the small print before subscribing, thats if you can find the small print.

Quote from: silly moo on March 04, 2014, 05:47:00 PM
I have sent an email to Railway Modeller asking that they explain clearly how their digital subscription system works in future advertisements and promotions.

If you feel it was misleading in the advertisement then the Advertising Standards Authority would like to hear from you too 

Hi Silly Moo

Yes, if you feel that you have been misled, as EP suggested,  contact the Advertising Standards Agency.

I have complained to them about advertising in a well know national newspaper, which I felt was misleading and not only did they uphold my complaint but I received a full apology from the newspaper and all similar adverts have since been much clearer about what was really on offer.

At least future subscribers would be aware that they were not actually gaining the rights to any issues after they cancel their sub.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained

Good luck

Glad I read this thread.

Effectively they are running a library and charging the same money to borrow a library book as it costs to buy a hard copy for yourself.

This has all the charm of Councils bragging about only increasing the Council Tax by 2% but then telling you in a separate letter several weeks later that green waste collection is no longer included in the price - and this now costs £40 for 8 months of the year paid up front. What will not be included next year.

OMG. This is my 1000th post.