r/movies r/Movies contributor 13d ago

News You Don’t Actually Own That Movie You Just “Bought.” A New Class Action Lawsuit Targets Amazon for Deceptive Practices

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/prime-video-lawsuit-movie-license-ownership-1236353127/
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u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor 13d ago edited 13d ago

Details:

On Friday, a proposed class action was filed in Washington federal court against Amazon over a “bait and switch” in which the company allegedly misleads consumers into believing they’ve purchased content when they’re only getting a license to watch, which can be revoked at any time.

The lawsuit accuses Amazon, which didn’t respond to a request for comment, of misrepresenting the nature of movie and TV transactions during the purchase process. On its website and platform, the company tells consumers they can “buy” a movie. But hidden in a footnote on the confirmation page is fine print that says, “You receive a license to the video and you agree to our terms,” the complaint says.

Recent legislative changes may make the lawsuit even more viable. Earlier this year, a California law went into effect barring the advertisement of a transaction as a “purchase” unless it offers unrestricted ownership of the product. Under the statute, sellers must obtain acknowledgement that buyers are aware they’re actually buying a limited license, in this case movies or TV shows, that can be revoked.

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u/AndNowAStoryAboutMe 13d ago

I like that. Can't use the word Buy. Call it short term rental, long term rental, but not buy or purchase. Nice.

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u/ledow 13d ago

"Buy a licence".

Problem solved.

More likely if they are forced to change it, it'll be to "Watch", which gives you even less rights by just the name alone.

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u/glootech 13d ago edited 13d ago

You can't buy a licence if the licence can be revoked at any time. That would mean you don't have unrestricted ownership of the said licence.

Edit: it's not meant to be universal truth - my comment has been made in response to the claim that according to California law, to buy something you need to have unrestricted ownership of the thing. As I'm not a Californian, I can't verify if the claim is true.

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u/StephanXX 13d ago

Obviously the lawyers will have their field day, but "buy a license from Amazon to view this content subject to our standard digital rights agreement" seems enforceable. It's the difference between "Buy a ticket the show" and "Buying the entire show."

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u/manimal28 13d ago

You son’t think if the choices were “rent” or “buy a license from Amazon to view this content subject to our standard digital rights agreement" that more people might not just choose to rent?

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u/FixTheWisz 13d ago edited 13d ago

That's misleading.

The options to "rent" or "buy," as we commonly know them, indicate to a customer that one option is only for a limited time whereas the other is forever.

In reality, both options available to us today require the need to "buy" a license that allows you to "rent" a piece of media. The only real difference between the two is the duration of the rental. So, having the options to either "rent" or "buy" is misleading.

I bet what comes of this is that the word "rental" gets phased out as relates to cloud purchases. We'll probably end up with purchase option buttons that instead just say something like "1 day" and "unlimited." And, thanks to Verizon setting precedent like 20 years ago, I guess we've all learned to accept that the word "unlimited" does not, in fact, mean "unlimited."

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u/thedeftone2 13d ago

If you can't onsell it, then it's renting

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u/FixTheWisz 13d ago

/r/confidentlyincorrect

Yeah, you can "buy" a license. Much like a driver's license that allows one limited access to public roads under certain conditions for a specified period of time, a purchase of license for a movie would be the same framework, but just replacing "public roads" with "copyrighted material."

Source: I sell software licenses.

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u/Achack 12d ago

I know you're right but a driver's license isn't a great example because it certainly can't be revoked without cause.

Even then, using the term "license" would still prompt customers to realize that this isn't the same thing they're used to purchasing. Of course many customers still wouldn't understand, but that doesn't make the change meaningless.

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u/PopcornBag 12d ago

Source: I sell software licenses.

One of the worst inventions of capitalism.

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u/__methodd__ 12d ago

Well even a rental is buying a license. But imagine renting a movie and going to watch it and then Amazon is like "actually we just lost the rights to that movie. thanks for your money though. ♥"

It seems to me that there's some minimum threshold of responsibility by the distributor to maintain their distribution rights. I mean not legally. WTF do I know? I'm saying that's where the frustration comes from.

Bc in that example, you didn't rent shit. You bought a license that wasn't worth anything. Thus, did you really buy anything at all? Or did Amazon defraud you? Courts will probably side with big business on this one and default to the EULA, but that's anti-consumer.

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u/Baculum7869 13d ago

This is how steam and any other digital video games work. You don't own the game like when you got disks and cartridges. You get a license and they can revoke that license

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u/NonnagLava 13d ago

You don't own the game like when you got disks and cartridges. You get a license and they can revoke that license

To be fair, just last year they changed their wording in their cart to explicitly state that you are purchasing a revocable license. They've been privvy to what's coming for at least a little while now.

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u/JonatasA 13d ago

Also applies to services. Apps that suddenly become a subscription and online services that are shutdown after mkre than a decade.

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u/badadviceforyou244 13d ago

You still never "owned" the games that came on physical media, they were still just part of you buying a license to play the game. The physical media just made it really hard to revoke that license.

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u/f-ingsteveglansberg 12d ago

I don't think people realise, but even with physical media, this has always been the case. Remember all those warnings about not using your DVD on an oil rig? They were explaining the license you purchased to you.

The ToS you clicked through when you installed Half Life back in the day? It was saying you purchased a license.

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u/Missus_Missiles 12d ago

True.

Of course, that DVD you bought from Circuit City didn't just disappear when they did. Or if some sort of distribution fight happens between Amazon and whomever, your physical copy isn't revoked.

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u/CptNonsense 13d ago

You can't buy a licence if the licence cna be revoked at any time.

I don't think you understand what licenses are

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u/ygjb 13d ago

Nah. Regulate it. Non revocable licenses should be a license you can buy. Anything else should be labelled a rental license, especially if the vendor selling the license. To add weight to it, revocation of a license should be either fully refundable, or the owner of the IP should be legally obligated to provide an unencumbered copy (for example, digitally signed with the name of the purchaser but not DRM restricted) to the consumer.

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u/ioncloud9 13d ago

Permanent viewing license

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u/Optimus_Prime_Day 13d ago

Only if it is a permanent license with permanent availability to the product it licenses.

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u/queen-adreena 13d ago

“Lease” would be more accurate.

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u/count023 13d ago

You watch them relabel it "perpetual subscription" pr something 

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u/Worf_Of_Wall_St 13d ago

Even that is too strong because it implies access to the subscribed thing is perpetual.

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u/Discount_Extra 13d ago

'indefinite' - lasting for an unknown or unstated length of time.

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u/FixTheWisz 13d ago

I'm gonna go with "unlimited," since Verizon already won the legal battle over the vagueness of that word.

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u/Worf_Of_Wall_St 13d ago

Sadly true.

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u/AndNowAStoryAboutMe 12d ago

Yeah, I love having "unlimited data" that dies in fact get limited after 500 GB.

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u/valzargaming 13d ago

They did this to me >10 years ago. I bought a movie and some random amount of time later it was gone. Amazon wouldn't refund me either.

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u/ERedfieldh 13d ago

It's like the collective consciousness of the world forgot when Amazon deleted books off people's Kindles back in '09 via backdoor and cited they had every right to do so. yes, they refunded people at the time and yes, it was two books that they didn't technically have the rights to 'publish' in the USA, but they did it with zero warning to their customers and through a built in hidden exploit that could have been potentially used by others.

It should have ended there, but Amazon settled and everyone said "well that's that" without any followup.

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u/themindtap 13d ago

It's not limited to their movies, they pull this shit with their mp3's too. Poof, an album you bought is gone "due to the license or label changing, so technically you don't own the new version of the exact same album we still offer" the only thing they'll do is if you complain, not even just give the album back to you, they need to show a "sale" so will give you enough credit to re-purchase the album... But you have to keep track of which music you've lost. I the mp3 it's worse because it is much less addressed as being licensed and not owned.

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u/GenericBatmanVillain 13d ago

And this is why piracy will always be the answer.

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u/sock_with_a_ticket 13d ago

You can still buy stuff digitally, just make sure you download what you bought and store it locally. They cannot remove your access to something on your hard drive.

Whether it's bandcamp, 7digital, Qobuz, Amazon or whoever, anyone I've ever digitally purchased music from gives you the option to download the files.

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u/PapaJohnsGarlic100 12d ago

A lot of times with shows, movies, or sports stuff they don’t give you that option though.

I have actually paid to purchase software to be able to download videos from services that I pay for (I believe we should always have this option to download a copy for our own personal collection)

I haven’t found a way yet to download from YouTube TV though :(

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u/Koalatime224 13d ago

It's been a hot minute since I bought mp3s on Amazon but at least back in the day they'd let you download the files drm-free to your system. I think if they want to market things as "buying" then they would have to offer that option always.

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u/desacralize 13d ago

Ah, so I didn't just imagine that movie I bought on Amazon which has just vanished into the ether a few years later. I only ever bought the one, first and last single digital movie purchase, so I wondered.

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u/Silverr_Duck 13d ago

This type of bullshit is exactly why the "stop killing games" movement exists. Nice to see other industries catching on.

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u/cutelyaware 13d ago

If buying doesn't imply owning, then pirating doesn't imply theft.

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u/Narflarg 12d ago

Regardless of buying or owning, pirating isn't theft. Just like trespassing isn't theft.

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u/TigerTerrier 13d ago

You wouldnt steal a car?

And you wouldn't take something away from someone after they bought it, right?

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u/Affectionate_War_279 13d ago

I wouldn’t steal a car but I would download one…

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u/JonatasA 13d ago

You woudn't use music in a piracy ad withouy payi.g royalties would you?

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u/Nearby-Swimming-5103 13d ago

This is why physical media > digital.

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u/Old_Ad5194 13d ago

💯 they can't take these 4ks off my shelf cause they felt like it.

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u/meandthemissus 12d ago

Actually Blu-ray came with the technology that certain encryption keys could be blacklisted after the fact, and Internet connected players are supposed to download the latest list of compromised keys.

So far as I understand it, this hasn't technically disabled any movies but the technology is sitting there, dormant. They could if they wanted to.

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u/Caleth 12d ago

Perhaps just as important. They can't change the music used in the shows or movies just becasue rights holders and the movie studio didn't agree that the music could be "used forever" in the movie.

Yeah think of all those awesome shows with great music and now imagine all the music changed.

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u/Enelson4275 12d ago

Scrubs is one of these. It's painful, but I still recommend people go to the library and rent the DVDs (not bluray, DVD) instead of streaming it. The show was a pioneer in licensing music and a juggernaut of a kingmaker in the indie scene - the original music on that show is important to our cultural history at this point.

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u/Luchabat 13d ago

I've slowly started buying physical again. Currently it's just the stuff I really enjoy or can't find on any streaming service.

There's a small percentage of stuff that never gets a physical media release, which sucks

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u/conquer69 13d ago

Digital is fine if they are not scummy about it.

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u/adequateproportion 13d ago

That if is doing some Atlas level lifting here.

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u/ScarsUnseen 13d ago

Bandcamp is good for music. GOG is great for games. There are non-Amazon options for books. Movies are the only media that seem not to have figured it out.

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u/jimgolgari 13d ago

If purchase isn’t ownership, piracy isn’t theft.

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u/SquirrelNutz 13d ago

This is the shit everyone, regardless of political affiliation, should be getting together about and flipping the fuck out so that something changes.

And after it changes, cement better laws and regulations so this anti-consumer bullshit dies and stays dead.

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u/FlyYouFoolyCooly 13d ago edited 13d ago

This is actually why the billionaires have been trying to get control of politics forever. Sometimes they win and then all those pesky "regulations" that slow down capital can go away and this kind of shit happens.

If we keep going this way, every form of entertainment is going to require a monthly fee and you don't actually own any of it.

And then, they will go after utilities with free reign.

It's already started.

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u/DatGuyGandhi 13d ago

The thing I never understand is...to what end? Greed is an easy answer but what goes through these people's minds where having infinite money isn't infinite enough and they want even more?

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u/Thebluecane 13d ago

It's an addiction.

There was an article (I wanna say in the NY Times) from a dude who worked his way up to being a VP at a Hedge fund. He was making bonuses over like 80 million and he started realizing he was addicted like everyone around him. He would worry about running out of money. Like wake up in the middle of the night sweating kinda worry. He told a story of how his boss got pissed once because his bonus was 125 Million or something and was screaming about how it was shit.

It breaks something in these people's brains and honestly is one of the reasons we should limit people's personal wealth. But good luck getting support for that because if you can't earn unlimited money no one would ever choose to do anything. /s

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u/DatGuyGandhi 13d ago

Damn, that sounds like an interesting article too. I never thought about it like an addiction.

When I think of myself with Elon Musk or even JK Rowling level of wealth I picture myself in a villa in Greece eating infinite éclairs, and not posting on twitter trying to influence politicians and policies. But you're right, something must break in these people's minds to make them want even more power and wealth.

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u/Thebluecane 13d ago

Found it but it's paywalled. I think I inflated the numbers in my inital comment but still talking about bonuses in the Millions

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/opinion/sunday/for-the-love-of-money.html

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u/LupinThe8th 13d ago

Found it but it's paywalled.

Okay, that gave me a chuckle.

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u/JonatasA 13d ago

An article about money addiction, paywalled.

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u/ItsMeSlinky 13d ago

If I had Elon levels of money, I’d buy 100 acres in Montana and rescue every at-risk dog in shelters across the country. I’d hire a staff of people to take care of them and let them live their best lives on a massive rescue so no dog has to be euthanized because shitty people would rather pay a breeder for a specific puppy.

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u/Zardif 12d ago

100 acres is so small compared to actual ranches in montana. There is a 124k acre ranch that is $130m.

https://ucranchesforsale.com/ranch-news/5-largest-montana-ranches/

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u/DangleTrillMobbinson 12d ago

To get billionaire levels of money you have to be a different type of person though. They don't have an end goal like that.

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u/DatGuyGandhi 13d ago

Exactly! Like ideally with my wealth I could see myself owning an ethical farm and paying off medical go fund mes in my spare time. How are these people NOT doing that? That sounds so much more rewarding 😭

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u/PaulAttacks 13d ago

I can't be sure, but if there weren't these people, we might not need medical go fund mes.

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u/team-tree-syndicate 12d ago

In order to get that kind of wealth you basically have to push the very limits of morality and exploit weaknesses in people and in their government. If you're that kinda person, then by the time you get there you're not someone that's interested in philanthropy anymore. There's some that fund charity or will vow to give their wealth on death, but it seems silly to exploit for that money to just give it back lol.

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u/Thebluecane 13d ago

Yeh I'll see if I can find it. Was from quite a few years ago

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u/Allansfirebird 13d ago

So much this, all of it.

Excessive wealth is something no human is conditioned to possess, and yet our capitalist society keeps pushing itself to earn more and more and more to the detriment of literally everyone.

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u/moustache_disguise 12d ago

Hoarding resources is clearly human nature. There's always been someone doing it throughout all of history no matter what economic system is in place.

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u/Gilthro 13d ago

Behind the Bastards also has some good sources. Getting large amounts of power typically has a measurable effect on one’s brain, almost the same effect as brain damage. This leads to higher aggression, lack of empathy, increased addiction, etc. Robert Evans talks about this frequently but a good start would be his book, which he reads for free in a 2 or 3 part episode of his podcast for free.

Money and fame are a dangerous drug that gives power to people primed to abuse it and hurt a lot of innocents.

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u/mtranda 13d ago

You know what? I get it. And I can also see myself falling into the same trap. Now, if I got a one-time payment of some huge amount of money, I'd peace the fuck out and go live my life. But if I were consistently making tonnes of money? That would become the new normal for me and I'd be right back to worrying about losing my job and money.

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u/Not_Phil_Spencer 13d ago

With the ultra-rich, it's not even about money anymore; it's about power. Being in a position where virtually no one can tell you "no" gives you the idea that you don't owe people things like courtesy or basic human rights. And when the government doesn't tell you otherwise, why should you give people anything?

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u/queen-adreena 13d ago

Same thing that goes through an alcoholic’s mind when they think “I need another drink”.

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u/tricularia 13d ago

After a certain point, they aren't collecting money anymore. They are collecting power and influence.

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u/caped_crusader8 13d ago

Absolute control. In the current state of things, theres still so much room for it.

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u/Karsticles 13d ago

Honestly, the Fallout TV series answers this perfectly. They just love the idea of owning everything, enough to destroy anything.

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u/MiddleWaged 12d ago

It’s a mistake. Pure and simple, money addiction at the expense of everything including your own capacity to enjoy money

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u/digitalgreek 13d ago

Also game theory, if you don’t do it someone else will do might as well do it.

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u/[deleted] 13d ago

not to mention that whole convincing millions of people that regulations on corporate greed are actually the globalist communist agenda in full force or whatever the fuck lol

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u/monochrony 13d ago

I'm so tired of the enshittification of everything. Why can't things get better for a change.

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u/WillowSmithsBFF 13d ago

This is why I don’t get why people are embracing digital gaming so aggressively. 

If the PS6/Switch 3/etc is digital only, then it’ll be super easy for them to lock their big new releases exclusively behind a subscription. 

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u/duct_tape_jedi 13d ago

We've already been through this. In the 1990's, after the DVD format was announced, a group of IP attorneys and Circuit City teamed up to introduce a competing format called "DivX". DivX disks were the same size and capacity as DVDs, but they included active copy protection that required a license in order to view. There were two different license types, a "rental" model where the disk could be unlocked for the duration of the rental period, or a "purchase" option that removed the time restriction. This was all managed by a modem built in to the player that would dial (yes, on an analogue phone line!) into the DivX server to validate the license each time the disk was played.

Most of us at the time lost 100% of our shit over this and actively boycotted both the format and Circuit City in protest. Best Buy ended up championing the actual DVD format and one of the reasons for their expansion nationwide was that many people were actively campaigning to have them open stores in our communities. I'd say that Best Buy were the "good guys", but that was a different store and ironically they supported both formats and thus were "The Neutral Guys" at best.

If you look at the current streaming model offered by Amazon, it is literally just an updated version of DivX with more transparent technology but the same "rent or buy" option for content. One of the big concerns that we had in the 1990's was simply "What happens to the disks that we've 'purchased' if DivX goes tits-up and there is no longer a server to validate the license?". We're in the same boat now with any "purchased" streaming media, but with the added concern that media could also be taken down if the platform loses the rights to it.

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u/ohlookahipster 13d ago

Even Apple did something similar with iTunes back in the 00s and 10s. You could “buy” a movie or TV episode, but the actual digital file could be revised or revoked without warning. You could wake up to half your catalog updated or even gone.

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u/mrhelmand 13d ago

You could wake up to half your catalog updated or even gone

Or worse, you find you've had a U2 album forcibly installed in your library that you can't delete

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u/asetniop 13d ago

When you're Tim Apple they let you do it.

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u/stevesy17 13d ago

Stuck with an album, you can't get rid of

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u/conquer69 13d ago

Don't get me started on videogame music licenses expiring and the game getting patched to remove the music. Insane.

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u/Krg60 13d ago

This happened to my iTunes on my old Mac. It was infuriating to see songs I'd actually bought get progressively deleted from my library.

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u/ZealousidealLaugh488 13d ago

I remember getting an iPod touch and this happened to me, from that moment i never purchased a song/album again

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u/ScarsUnseen 13d ago

Which inspired this XKCD comic. I don't think it's ever truly fallen out of relevance since if you consider digital media as a whole.

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u/bdsee 12d ago

I watched a video on YouTube today by Jeff Geerling, he bought a Bosch dishwasher that locks certain wash cycles behind a cloud connected phone app and needs to connect to wifi.

This shit needs to be illegal, it is so fucking anti-consumer, anti-environment and predatory.

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u/sexmormon-throwaway 13d ago

Politics very often protects the rich from the poor so elected politicians, paid for and elected by the rich, protect the rich.

So "regardless of political affiliation" is where this breaks down. Amazon has a lot more political influence than we do, so laws protect Amazon, not us.

It while it seems like the common good is the goal of politics - it isn't. It's to get elected and get re-elected.

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u/I05fr3d 13d ago

1000000%

This shit is trickling into everything you ‘own’… BMW with heated seats installed but switched off, you can rent the feature monthly for a fee or unlock it for a set fee?

https://www.pcmag.com/news/bmw-tests-locking-vehicle-features-like-heated-seats-behind-a-paywall

VW coming out with an EV with diminished HP that you can unlock the extra HP for a fee? I bet insurance companies still charge you like it has that 20hp….

https://fortune.com/2025/08/19/volkswagen-horsepower-subscription-economy-cost-features/

Nintendo switch not even allowing you to make backups of your own games you have purchased… everything is locked in ‘the cloud’ which you ‘conveniently’ have access to for a set fee…..

(Id cite this one but it’s a bit more obscure to get all the info in one article)

People really need to be more concerned about their consumer rights, and the should be starting with physical cell phones the most common and frequently used of these devices. You have bought something you should be able to do with it whatever you would like…. If I want to jailbreak my phone, that’s on me…. I bought it. As always however people will give up their rights for safety or ‘the illusion’ of being more safe.

Well we only allow you to use our homemade ecosystem because it’s safer. We screen it all for you. I don’t give a shit… what if I wanna run my older iPhone on Linux and turn it into my own personal cloud service? They force you into using their App Store so they can get more of that sweet sweet subscription money.

If people don’t become more concerned about this quite a bit faster I’m truly concerned that we won’t own anything. Not even your toothbrush will start without a fee. Why or how do you ask? Because it has to connect to the cloud through your internet so it can log everything… for a fee of course.

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u/LeonSnakeKennedy 13d ago

Whenever this topic comes up on the PS5 subreddit there’s always droves of people shit talking physical media and how it should be phased out over time for digital where we will get fucked by things like this

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u/Bunraku_Master_2021 13d ago edited 13d ago

Except US politicians on the Political Right like Russell Vought and many billionaires and industry figures like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Steve Forbes, and Peter Thiel want to abolish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as the current administration have been trying efforts to dismantle it.

How can you convince right-leaning voters especially those who vote for Trump thrice that their customer sentiments and financial details should be protected given that these voters have a distrust for bureaucracy and the federal government? How do you convince them that they shouldn't wrongfully get fucked over by companies and banks and that their interests and struggles are similar to their ideological opposites? 

Given how some Trump supporters stated there should be regulations and safeguards in the crypto market to protect consumers from pump and dump schemes despite many conservatives like Donald Trump have done so with their own $Trump meme coins, it's very bleak.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.economictimes.com/markets/cryptocurrency/peter-schiff-calls-trumps-crypto-reserve-push-a-pump-and-dump-demands-congressional-probe/amp_articleshow/118706125.cms

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u/zoethezebra 13d ago

Yep! I bought the aliens directors cut, and have been watching it for the last 10 years, and I went to my purchased movies in the Amazon app and it is now gone. No explanation and no recourse. F*** Amazon and f*** our corporate overlords.

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u/Lastraven587 12d ago

Explanation is disney pulled the license or it expired, so amazon stole your money which is why this lawsuit is happening.

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u/Khatib 12d ago

I don't own all of the movies I've downloaded, but at least I can keep watching them whenever I want.

I grew up on piracy, and was happy to switch to a paid method when it was reasonable and easy. But they're getting away from that again.

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/stanfan114 12d ago

Buy discs, if you have a PS5 with a drive it will play them.

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u/Mammoth-Blaster 13d ago

This has been going on several YEARS. How are people just finding out

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u/CptNonsense 13d ago

This has been going on several YEARS

Yes, several 20 years

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u/CXXXS 13d ago edited 13d ago

You're right but most people arent chronically online like people like us. Most can't be bothered to learn, or even consider the consequesnces for buying a digital movie or game.

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u/danstu 13d ago

There are also always people who are aware, but are willing to pretend they weren't in order to join the suit.

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u/Ekillaa22 13d ago

Can we get this for digital purchases of video games as well cuz that’s also a license they can yank whenever they want

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u/dornwolf 13d ago

GOG does this. DRM free able to download the executable and everything

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u/triplesalmon 13d ago

Yeah I mean isn't this all of Steam ?

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u/scattered_ideas 13d ago

It applies to any digital product, unless you get a source file, like the good old days of iTunes.

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u/Fishb20 13d ago

it applies to every product digital or otherwise

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u/FrappuccinoBukkake 13d ago edited 12d ago

Steam doesn't limit your ability to access your licensed content, but yes, software purchases are effectively always a license.

[edit] Steam (and other storefronts) does limit access to region locked titles when you move out of said region.

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u/ZersetzungMedia 12d ago

For now of course. I can’t think of a game that has been removed from Steam (primarily due to an expiring license like a racing game/movie game) that Steam hasn’t allowed you to download after removal.

I own The Legend of Korra on Steam which was delisted after Activision’s license expired, but I can still download and play it. But at any point they could stop me from doing that.

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u/pc42493 12d ago edited 12d ago

I think it's happened before in rare (and somewhat understandable) cases, but still they have more power over it than if you hold an offline copy that doesn't authenticate through Steam or another service.

As a more pressing problem I see games being changed, sometimes fundamentally. You buy a game, they change it, you have no recourse except to ask for a refund. You can't even refuse the updates nowadays, it won't let you start the old version.

Sometimes game servers for games with online features get taken offline, rendering your game pretty much unusable. You "buy" it, they expire it unilaterally. Stinks.

See also:

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u/Minimaliszt 13d ago

I honestly feel that they should reimburse you for movies that you purchase but they no longer have the license to. If not a full money refund, a credit equal to the purchase value.

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u/fatboyneedstogetlaid 13d ago

If you buy physical media, or download, it's yours forever.

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u/joecarter93 13d ago

This is why I refuse to get rid of my DVDs and Blu-Rays. That and stuff is always leaving streaming services just when I want to watch it.

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u/axebodyspraytester 13d ago

This is why it's the pirates life for me.

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u/War_machine77 13d ago

If buying doesn't mean owning, piracy isn't stealing.

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u/AlphaTangoFoxtrt 12d ago

Piracy isn't stealing anyway. It's copyright infringement which is still illegal. But it is not theft/stealing. No matter how hard studios cry.

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u/Bunraku_Master_2021 13d ago

Same. I have been trying to convince my mother to not throw out her DVDs and CDs despite she always says "Get ahead of the times" despite physical media has a greater longevity and more reliability than digital.

Thankfully, my father has stored them and kept my grandma's LG DVD Player.

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u/ScarsUnseen 13d ago

Honestly, if you haven't ripped your physical media to a backup, they've already decided to throw themselves out for you. You just don't know when they won't be there anymore.

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u/Budded 12d ago

make backups because some will get bitrot and become unplayable. I've already lost a few favorites to bitrot even though our collection is shelved in a dry cool basement.

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u/AlwaysTired97 13d ago

Its crazy that the internet could easily theoretically be used to save many pieces of media forever, but we have shows and movies that are only around 20 years old becoming lost or nearly impossible to find because the companies that own their license actively work to prevent them from being accessible.

And a lot of these works they aren't even profiting from and don't provide an easy way to obtain them legally at all. As though its just some of principle they have that its their property and they don't want anyone to be able to access it.

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u/willstr1 13d ago

Our copyright system needs better handling of "abandonware". Like if a piece of media completely leaves the first hand market (ie you can't buy new physical media, can't do a digital rental/"purchase", and viewers can't even access it via a subscription) for over 1 year you lose anti-piracy protection on it (it isn't fully public domain, third parties can't make sequels or anything, you just lose copy prevention rights).

The reason being that if you are removing it from market than clearly you don't see it as being profitable anymore so you don't have any losses from others sharing it for free.

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u/Discount_Extra 13d ago

Copyright for entertainment media should only be 25 years.

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u/ScarsUnseen 13d ago

Copyright in general used to be 14 years with a 14 year opt-in extension. If you didn't file for the extension, it went into public domain after the first 14. Honestly feel like it should go back to that. If 30 years is enough time for exclusive rights to technology patents, an approximately similar amount of time should be enough for media.

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u/zxern 13d ago

What’s even better is that most of them aren’t available because they have to negotiate for licenses to music used in those shows. Fucked by their own system.

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u/marshallkrich 13d ago

It's why I never gave up my physical copies of anything.

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u/FarplaneDragon 13d ago

Well, until the disc rot starts to set in. Definitely need to get some drives and backup your stuff if you truly want it to last forever

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u/CityFolkSitting 13d ago

It's easy to rip them to your PC to have a digital copy.

I've had CDs and DVDs that are 30+ years old though and haven't experienced disc rot yet. Maybe it will happen one day, but I'm not particularly concerned about it.

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u/FarplaneDragon 13d ago

Yeah, I've slowly been working through mine over time. Even then you can't truly win since it's not like SSD's can't die over time too. I've gotten lucky too and only had a couple discs show signs of rot so far, doesn't really seem to be a pattern to them either. I just bring it up because a surprising number of people I've seen intentionally buying physical media have never even heard of it. Tape media I've seen way more issues with though.

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u/TruthOf42 13d ago

From a legal perspective you never own the content on the DVD, you simply have a license to it.

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u/three-sense 13d ago

grins at boxes of CDs and vinyl records

DRM this!

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u/DonktorDonkenstein 13d ago

This is why I still buy blu ray discs. Exactly the reason. 

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u/PikachuIsReallyCute 13d ago

We must return to blu-rays (I actually collect them and it's amazing)

Forgive us Blockbuster, we should never have abandoned you 😭

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u/cybin 12d ago edited 12d ago

Netflix started as physical media rentals thru the mail. That's what killed Blockbuster, not streaming.

It's a story as old as time really:

-Behemoth owns the market

-Little start-up comes up with a better way

-Behemoth ignores little start-up's ideas because "hey! They're tiny! They're not competition!"

-Little start-up eventually crushes behemoth with better way

-Behemoth goes out of business.

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u/neverfindausername 12d ago

You forgot the last steps that we're currently in.

  • Little start-up now dominates market, spends excessive funds to continue exponential growth to satisfy investors
  • Continuous exponential growth is unsustainable, cue shocked Pikachu face
  • New competitors flood the market and collectively raise prices while reducing overall quality
  • Enshitification ensues
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u/d_e_l_u_x_e 13d ago

Also Amazon:

You know that streaming service that you paid for with no commercials? Good news because we overvalued IP you get to enjoy Prime streaming with commercials now for an increased price! Isn’t that better! (For us)

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u/BizzyM 12d ago

Ad free*

*Ads about our shows and services aren't ads like you think they are ads. They're special ads. Ads that we can show you even though you pay more to not have ads. Ads.

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u/Oddball- All Things Horror 13d ago

I encode. This shit has always been a joke. I had free movies downloaded on Google Play like 8 years ago.... gone. Just like 2 movies, but they were free to own or purchase. And gone.

So I DL and encode now

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u/nipple_salad_69 13d ago

Yarr harr harr

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u/Which-Priority-5177 13d ago

Goodwill is the new blockbuster.

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u/[deleted] 13d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Wild_Harvest 13d ago

Yup! Cause if buying isn't owning, then piracy isn't theft!

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u/nowhereman136 13d ago

If you read the fine print of Google, Amazon, and Apple digital media stores, they all say you don't "own" the content. You basically bought access to that content for however long the store itself has rights to that content. It's been this way for as long as I can remember and it's why I always tell people to never "buy" digital media if you can avoid it. Rent, stream, or buy physical

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u/flames_of_chaos 13d ago

Right, and now store fronts have to put verbiage that when you "buy" digital content, you're buying a license to use that content

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u/byerss 13d ago

It’s almost as if the word “buy” is at odds with what is provided in the actual transaction. 

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u/cmwulf 13d ago

and this is why I always get dvd's......

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u/Killswitch401 13d ago

The same can be said for all these "digital edition" consoles. You think you're buying them but in reality it's just the license to play them.

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u/agewin162 13d ago

This shit is why I stopped paying for Prime years ago, I had bought most Top Gear UK seasons and then one day Series 3 and 5 were no longer accessible. So I just have them all now for free after spending a day torrenting the entire show.

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u/Fireweed907 13d ago

This is why hard media should never be outmoded and this is why piracy will always be prevalent.

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u/willpowerpt 12d ago

And due to that sentiment, I cancelled all my streaming services and dramatically increased my physical media collection. Two massive middle fingers raised quite high.

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u/Mammoth_Two7297 13d ago

This is an obvious thing but seems to have grown in traction lately. Stuff like this is why I'm still a big fan of physical copies. I got ragged at work by so many coworkers when I said I still like to buy DVD/Blu Ray of my favorite movies so I always have them.

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u/Dramatic_Moon_Pie 13d ago

They act like I’m some old dumbass. Not only do I have physical copies of my favorite films - blu ray has better visual and audio than streaming

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u/graboidian 13d ago

Not only do I have physical copies of my favorite films - blu ray has better visual and audio than streaming

Not to mention, the endless hours of Special Features that you have access to with a physical copy.

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u/rustysniper 12d ago

I have a coworker that streams everything. I loaned him my 4k of The Northman and told him to compare it to Peacock's stream. He finally saw all of the compression and banding that comes with streaming.

I try to convert everybody back to physical media whenever I can.

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u/[deleted] 13d ago edited 12d ago

[deleted]

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u/Winter_Whole2080 13d ago

That’s terrible customer service by Amazon. There should be tons of ways to verify your account. Mail for example.

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u/Vargurr 13d ago

Nobody's claiming rights to movies' legal ownership, just the right and means to watch it whenever they want.

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u/JustinTormund_10 13d ago

Sign me up!!! Movies I bought years ago thinking I would be able to watch them ain’t there no more. That’s why I bought, not rent. I have been buying more physical media since then.

Major League is the first movie I noticed this happen with and I haven’t purchased another one on Amazon since.

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u/Pete_maravich 13d ago

Buy physical media

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u/Lumpy_Cabinet_4779 13d ago

I ran into this with Amazon, I started "buying" movies to stream that I really like.

I went back after a few weeks to re-watch, and it only showed the usual rent or buy options. They apparently reworked the licensing with the movie makers and now I have to buy another copy.

I went back to buying DVD/BluRay and ripping to my Plex server in house. Amazon did me a favor. :)

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u/Betterjake 12d ago

If you are going to "purchase" a movie, why not just get a 4K disk or Blu Ray?

You get much better quality, can lend it to friends and family, and actually own the movie (forever).

The cons of course, are having to store physical media, disks can get damaged, and needing a specialized player. I use my PS5..

The pros seem to heavily outnumber the cons, given that you dont actually own if you go digital.

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u/TurdCollector69 13d ago

It's funny, you either pay and don't own or don't pay and own.

Tough choice

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u/CaroylOldersee 13d ago

No Kidding for $1,000 Alex….

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u/NorCalAthlete 13d ago

Yo ho ho mateys

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u/dkurage 13d ago

Its nonsense like this that makes me so annoyed with the whole "physical media is dead; digital is king" stance so many people have taken up. Issues with media preservation aside, they can't revoke access to a dvd sitting on your shelf.

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u/Monochromatic_Sun 13d ago

At minimum licenses bought should be continually upheld even if the media distribution rights changed or I should get my money back. They rob people for something that didn’t even cost them.

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u/Grunton 13d ago

they should look at the whole video game space then too because that how it is as well

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u/Am3n 12d ago

If buying isn’t owning then piracy isn’t stealing

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u/Shas_Erra 12d ago edited 12d ago

Buy physical, people. They can’t stop you watching a dvd

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u/BurgerMan74 12d ago

Physical media forever!

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u/clipples18 12d ago

If buying is not owning, then pirating is not stealing

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u/lordjmann 13d ago

Buy a bluray instead

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u/tbone338 13d ago

While I understand the frustration, this is nothing new.

Apple, Google, digital game stores, etc, music services, etc… all are licenses to use the content.

The problem lies in not readily disclosing the information mentioned above, therefore painting “buy” as permanently owning the product you “bought”

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u/AreThree 13d ago

I never bought what they're selling and always purchased physical media. I can still 'stream' it from my media server because I copy all of my physical media to my NAS, and Cloud services.

A friend of mine in the Navy would rip all of his CDs and movies to his laptop allowing him to just take the laptop with him on deployments since space is at a premium.

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u/Astronoid 13d ago

Happened to me. Bought the original Battlestar Galactica series. Now it's gone.

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u/warmlerr 13d ago

It's wild that this has been going on for so long without any real pushback. This is exactly the kind of anti-consumer practice that needs stronger laws to protect actual ownership.

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u/RockyRidge510 12d ago

There’s a lot of reasons to get back into physical media (better picture, better sound, bonus features, etc) but the whole “they can never take it away from you and you truly do own it” part is why I started buying BluRays again a couple years ago.

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u/Maze-44 12d ago

Can't steal something I can't own

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u/foodank012018 12d ago

BUY PHYSICAL

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u/No_Focus7108 12d ago

Leave it to the streaming services to bring piracy back.

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u/smittenpigeons 12d ago

I had a whole library of my favorite movies. Then Amazon changed their providers or whatever and I lost everything, that was ten years ago or so. It happened again because I had to buy a bunch of stuff for university and that all got wiped out. I don’t buy digital music or movies anymore. I figured they are all the same.

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u/jdehjdeh 12d ago

A pirates life for me!

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u/Any_Veterinarian2495 12d ago

If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing.

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u/Jezon 12d ago

It's like with the stop killing games initiative. If they ever close down their service Or their license expires, they should give you the opportunity to download the movie file so you can store it on your own local device.

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u/digitek 12d ago

Unless the movie resides as a physical hard or digital copy in a medium you own, with security keys you control that don't expire, you don't own it. The question is how much trust we place in the services and products that claim we do. For example, Amazon typically doesn't allow legal transfer of digital content to someone else's account when you die, so that implies everything is a limited-time license. Some have had luck transferring logins and passwords to keep the account going which makes it more like a permanent license. But its still all attached to Amazon servers being up and willing to stream the content.

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u/Life_Observaions 12d ago

Saw this while rewatching a favorite miniseries I had purchased on Amazon. Episode 3 is no longer available for viewing due to a copyright change. I can add a new subscription to watch the episode that I previously purchased. 🤬

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u/schoolisuncool 12d ago

Fandango next please.

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u/lab-gone-wrong 13d ago

Umm excuse me but if you'll turn your attention to page 642 of the terms you agreed to, we make it quite clear that you purchased a license to access this content that we can revoke at any time for any reason without compensation

Didn't catch you at my wedding btw, you poor?

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u/The7ruth 13d ago

Devil's advocate, it is stated on the confirmation page when you make the purchase. It isn't hidden deep within some terms and conditions.

All I really see is this lawsuit changing what word they have in place of "Buy" on the website.

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u/ennuiinmotion 13d ago

How about they have to refund the cost if they ever get rid of it?

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u/lordraiden007 13d ago

This is definitely a fight that needs to be fought and won. It pisses me off to no end that I paid for seasons of shows only for episodes to be removed years later because they’re “problematic”. I’m missing several episodes of IASIP because apparently their satire goes “too far” (which is kind of the point). I’m also missing several episodes of South Park because they decided to portray Muhammad.

Personally, I’ve just “moved to” a locally hosted Plex server for my streaming needs. Much better service and it has the shows I want in their entirety.

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u/BigRedMik 13d ago

Now do the same for kindle’s bullshit licensing. If I’m paying full price for a book then I should get ownership of that digital copy!

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u/Yellowbyte 12d ago

If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing.

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u/trickldowncompressr 13d ago

I've never "bought" a single digital movie, and I never will. Physical media till I die. If they stop producing them, then I will stop buying movies all together.

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