You Don’t Own the Digital Shows and Movies You “bought”
The way we buy movies and TV shows has changed a lot since the invention of home video. In fact, these days, many of us don’t buy anything at all and instead stream all our content. However, there are many who prefer to buy entertainment, and some of them are happy to do so digitally. After all, with diskless devices like the Apple TV and Fire Stick all the rage right now, it’s the most convenient way to buy media.
However, there’s one big catch that many people don’t realize when they put down their digital card: You don’t actually own the digital movies and TV shows you’re buying.
PlayStation is the latest company to remove games from customers’ libraries
Sony recently posted a ” legal update notice ” on the PlayStation website. This doesn’t usually make headlines, but this time it’s different: In the notice, Sony lists hundreds of Discovery-branded shows that you’ll no longer be able to access starting December 31st:
Effective December 31, 2023, pursuant to our content licensing agreements with content providers, you will no longer be able to watch any Discovery content you previously purchased, and that content will be removed from your video library.
We sincerely thank you for your continued support.
Thank you,
PlayStation Store
Hey, at least they thanked us for our support.
Is there at least a refund? Nope. If you purchased any of this content from the PlayStation Store in the past, you will simply lose both the content and your money at the end of the year. Whether it’s Breaking Amish , Cake Boss , or MythBusters , you better rewatch your favorite shows now because you won’t be able to access them until 2024.
If you’re angry, I don’t blame you. If you’re worried about the rest of your PlayStation Store content, I don’t blame you. When you buy a TV or a movie, Sony certainly hasn’t made it clear that, hey, if we lose the licensing rights to the thing you’re buying, not only will it disappear from the store, but we’ll also remove it from your account. Game console . Of course, you can’t buy shows and movies on your PlayStation anymore, as Sony shut down that service back in 2021 , so you might think you’ll still need to look elsewhere to buy shows and movies.
The problem is that you’re not better off buying digital shows and movies on other platforms like Amazon, Apple or Google. Unfortunately, this problem affects all platforms that sell digital media: nowhere is safe.
You don’t have digital shows or movies.
Here’s the sad truth: Whether you buy The Dark Knight on Amazon or Community: Season 1 on Google, the digital media you “buy” isn’t actually yours. It doesn’t belong to you or the platform you bought it from. You pay for the right to watch this content as long as the provider has the right to host it. Once their licensing agreement with the company that actually owns the content expires and the platform does not renew it, the platform loses the right to “sell” it, and therefore you lose the right to view it. No returns, no discounts on future purchases, just a lighter wallet.
As frustrating as it may be, technically we all agree to this agreement when we make a purchase. You will find some language describing these terms in the terms of service for any platform that does not actually own the content they sell. Take Amazon Prime Video for example. Scroll through their TOS and you’ll see the following:
I. Availability of purchased digital content. Digital Content you purchase will generally continue to be available to you to download or stream through the Service, as applicable, but may become unavailable due to licensing restrictions of the potential content provider or other reasons, and Amazon will have no liability to you liability if Purchased Digital Content becomes unavailable for further downloading or streaming.
Google’s TOS says something similar :
In certain cases (for example, if Google loses its rights, a service or Content is discontinued, critical security issues arise, or applicable terms or laws are violated), Google may remove from your Device or stop providing you with access to certain Content that you have purchased.
This doesn’t happen all the time. If that were the case, there would probably be more fuss about things like this. My Apple TV library contains movies and shows that I bought a decade or more ago that are still happily waiting for the next time I want to watch them, and will likely be there for years to come. But if for some reason AMC Networks pulls Breaking Bad from the Apple platform, or if Amazon MGM Studios decides that Casino Royal doesn’t need to be available on non-Amazon platforms, I could see my library shrinking. (Also, this is how I found out that Amazon now owns MGM ?)
While this situation sucks, it wouldn’t be so bad if they just cleared it up . No one, I repeat no one , reads the terms of service for these things, and the companies know it. Instead of a Buy button, there should be a Rent button with a large pop-up warning you that you’re simply renting a movie or show indefinitely. At least then people won’t be so angry when the $30 they spent on a season of TV disappears from their Fire Stick.
If you want to own your content, buy physical
Betamax, laserdisc and VHS have been replaced by evolving technologies, but this does not mean that digital media has destroyed physical content. In fact, DVDs and Blu-rays are selling quite well these days, and you can find them in abundance for almost any title you’re looking for. If you’re going to spend your money to “own” something, you might as well choose something that the studios can’t take away from you in the future.
Even if you have digital copies, physical media has many benefits , from video quality to media storage. But if the studios figure out how to block you from viewing your discs, that’s another story. But even in 2023, if you have a disc and something to play it on, you’re ready.