Original sentence: If the information is stored in a way which the user's software provider tries to keep secret, the user may own the information, but have no way to retrieve it except by using a particular brand of software.One of the contentious issues surrounding the use of proprietary formats is that of ownership
Edited sentence: If the information is stored in a way which the user's software provider tries to keep secret, the user may own the information by virtue of having created it, but they have no way to retrieve it except by using a version of the original software which produced the file.One of the contentious issues surrounding the use of proprietary formats is that of ownership of created content