By+Emily+Tamkin

或許大部分人都会理所当然地认为电子书比纸质书便宜，在网上付费看电影比购买电影光盘便宜。所以当亚马逊上的电子书定价比纸质书还要高，下载高清版电影比购买二手光盘还要贵时，很多人感到疑惑不解。但如果换个角度思考，电子版带给我们的除了信息内容，还有便利舒适的使用体验，也许你就会觉得多付的钱是值得的。

Were increasingly paying extra to get the digital version of a book or movie.

我们正在为数字版书籍或电影支付越来越多的钱。

Imagine， for a moment， that you want to buy The Complete Works of Primo Levi1 edited by talented translator Ann Goldstein. If you were to buy a new version of the hardcover2 collection on Amazon， the price is$58.40. If， however， you decided that rather than adorning3 your shelves with Levi， you wanted to download it to your e-reader， saving yourself paper and time， you would need to pay $59.49. It would cost you more not to physically own the books.

Of course， its just a difference of $1.09. But spend some time on Amazon and a trend becomes clear： Many （though certainly not all） digital versions cost more than their physical counterparts4. The Blu-ray Disc of the Christmas classic Love Actually costs a very reasonable $8.68， but to download and buy the HD5 version on Amazon Video costs $14.99. （To download and rent it costs $3.99， while a used version is only$2.37）. Download Beyoncés6 Lemonade from Apple to your iPhone for $17.99， but get the CD on Amazon for just $15.76.

Certainly this is far from the case in every instance—there are lots of examples of the digital version being cheaper than the physical. But the list will only get longer， raising the question： Why are we increasingly paying more money to not actually have the thing were buying？ Amazon and Apple acknowledged receipt of but did not respond to requests for comment. But while we cannot know their official answers， we can nevertheless speculate7 as to why were now paying more to own without physically owning.

For one thing， weve reached a point at which its the digital version that wont let us down. Mark Dean， assistant professor in the Department of Economics at Columbia University， surmised in an email that while he could try to create “some clever behavioral econ explanation，”8 he thinks the real answer is that we are paying more to download because we are learning to trust the digital， easily available version. It used to be that to have the physical copy was to have reliability and consistency. But that isnt true anymore， he said. The internet is now reliable， and with it Amazon and Netflix9. In fact， theyre more durable than the physical copy， as anyone who has scratched10 a CD or had a package get lost in the mail or misplaced a beloved book would likely agree.

Weve also come to see the digital version as superior in some ways. Mark Armstrong， professor of economics at the University of Oxford， noted in an email that well shell out11 for things like being able to quickly consume a product wherever one wants， or clicking on a word reading to see its definition， or skipping to the place in a book where a character first appears. Furthermore， he said， digital copies dont take up any space in a home office or university library， and perhaps more importantly， its the “only way to get immediate access from your sofa.” All of which is to say that we pay more for digital copies not only because they are more reliable， but also because they are more convenient.

Physical formats， on the other hand， so quickly become outdated. Richard Wilks， anthropologist and co-director of Indiana Universitys Food Institute， noted in a phone interview that millennials （of course its the millennials） have seen their parents lug VHS tapes to Goodwill.12 In other words， they have seen， and are currently seeing， the technologies with which they themselves grew up become obsolete13. Why pay extra for the DVD when you know your next computer probably wont have a DVD drive？

This is true， of course， true of movies and music， but not of books. What is true of all three， however， is that the digital version is often more trusted and more convenient， and that the digital is an accepted part of the way we live now. （Consider how increasingly surprising it is to see someone proudly display DVDs and records. E-books make it harder to show off your erudite14 tastes， alas.）

But not everyone can afford to jump on the ownership by absence bandwagon15， since not everyone has access to that version in the first place. According to the Pew Research Center， 13 percent of adult Americans do not use the internet， and 19 percent of those people said they dont do so because its cost prohibitive16. To Aleenah Mehta， a research fellow at the University of California， Berkeleys Haas Institute， this suggests a third driver behind this trend： People are paying more because the cost is less important than performance and participation in the new economy. That is， this trend exists because people always pay more to be part of the new cool club， and today the cool club is digital.

Whether or not it is indeed hipper to own the digital version， the reality remains that if the most accessible version of culture is 1） not accessible to everyone and 2） the least affordable， then ownership by absence becomes exclusionary.17 Not everyone gets to download culture.

We may be paying a premium for the convenience of digital objects—but theres another cost beyond the extra couple of bucks youre shelling out up-front.18 Mark Lemley， professor of law and director of the Program in Law， Science and Technology at Stanford Law School， said in an email， “customers get fewer rights in a digital copy than they do in a physical copy. I can loan， resell， or tear into pieces my physical book or CD. But the law wont let me do the same thing with the digital copy I ‘buy. ” Were paying more to be legally able to do less. Or， as Aaron Fellmeth has put it in Future Tense， “You bought it， but you dont own it.”

This， qualms19 serious and subtle aside， is the way we pay to own now and may be for the foreseeable future. That doesnt mean weve become any less captivated20 by consumption. As Wilks said， possession is fundamentally human， and while we may change the concept of what and how we possess， well still be possessed by possessions.

We still own things， in other words. We may no longer show how well-read21 we are by displaying hardcover Primo Levi on our bookshelves. But now we can bring his work with us everywhere， without lugging around those heavy books. And well even pay more to do just that.

我偶尔会设想，假如你想购买由优秀翻译家安·戈德斯坦编辑的《普里莫·莱维全集》，亚马逊上的新版精装书售价为58.40美元。但是如果你认为与其用莱维的书装饰书架，不如把它下载到电子阅读器上，这样还节省纸张和时间，那么你需要支付59.49美元，比购买纸质书还要贵。

当然，价格只相差1.09美元，如果你在亚马逊上花点时间，就会发现一个趋势日益明显：很多产品（当然不是全部）的数字版价格高于其实体版。经典圣诞爱情片《真爱至上》的蓝光碟定价相当合理——8.68 美元，而从“亚马逊视频”上购买下载高清版需要花14.99 美元（租看下载这部电影是3.99 美元，而二手光盘只需2.37 美元）。从苹果商店下载歌手碧昂丝的专辑《柠檬水》到iPhone上需要支付17.99 美元，而从亚马逊上买张CD只要15.76美元。

当然很多时候并非如此——很多产品的数字版还是比实体版便宜。但是数字版价格高于实体版的产品只会越来越多，让我们不禁发问：为什么要花越来越多的钱去购买不能实际持有的产品呢？亚马逊和苹果公司都承认收到过相关提问，但没有给出答复。……