Sony has just upset hundreds of thousands of customers and spelled out one of the reasons why millions of people globally continue to turn to piracy rather than purchase legitimate content. Because when you do things the right way, you never know when those purchases might vanish overnight.
In a brief note published on the Playstation.com website, the company wrote that it will soon be deleting hundreds of titles from the PlayStation Store, which means they’ll be removed from the libraries of anyone who purchased them – with zero compensation or even so much as an apology.
As of September, a staggering 551 titles will vanish, and users won’t even have the option to try and download them first. There are some pretty popular movies among them too, including Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Gomorrah, the entire Rambo collection, Apocalypse Now, Pan’s Labyrinth and Moonlight.
The movies are going because Sony’s licensing agreement with the owner of those titles, StudioCanal, appears to have come to an end, and for unknown reasons it’s not being renewed. As a result, from September 1, “you will no longer be able to access your previously purchased content from StudioCanal, and it will be removed from your video library."
When the licensing agreement expires, it means Sony no longer has any right to sell those movies and TV shows. The fact that people have paid money for them is completely irrelevant, even if they only spent the money yesterday, because in the terms and conditions that very few people ever read when they make a digital purchase, it makes it perfectly clear that you’re not actually paying to own the content. Rather, what you’re paying for is a license to view a particular movie or show, and that license can be withdrawn at any time.
For affected users, this will be an unpleasant reminder that when you purchase digital bits, you never truly own them, because you’re always subject to the licensing conditions of that media.
This is why it’s so sad that physical media is in rapid decline. When you buy a physical copy of a movie, such as a DVD or 4K Blu-ray disc, you own it. For sure, buying a physical item generally costs a bit more, but at least you do get to own what you pay for. Not only that, but if it’s a Blu-ray disc, it usually also means you’ll be able to enjoy superior picture and sound quality than any title that’s streamed.
Sony’s announcement was first reported by FlatpanelsHD, and since the news broke there has been a flood of posts on Reddit from irate customers who’re about to lose access to content they've purchased. One poster called Quelonious said on the r/movies subreddit that “I will never buy streaming movies again,” and will henceforth only pay for physical Blu-ray discs.
Others stated that Sony’s actions are why so many people prefer to just download movies illegally. “You aren’t buying the movie,” said another poster called Rewdyroo. “It functions more like a lease and if the license for the movie that whatever service you bought it from runs out your digital movie also goes away, no refund. I've had it happen on Amazon and will never purchase a digital movie again."
"This should be illegal,” said Mildmichigan. “If I buy something digitally, and the platform loses distribution rights or whatever then I should be grandfathered in."
