You Don't Own What You've Bought: Apple Disappears Purchased Movies

[Mike]

Once again, copyright and the digitization of everything means you no longer "own" what you've "bought." I thought we'd covered all this a decade ago when Kindle owners discovered that even though they'd "purchased" copies of the ebook of George Orwell's 1984, that their books had been memory holed, thanks to Amazon losing a license. After there was an uproar, Amazon changed its system and promised such things would never happen again. You would think that other online stores selling digital items would remember this and design their systems not to do this -- especially some of the largest.



Enter Apple and its infamous iTunes store. On Twitter, Anders G da Silva has posted a thread detailing how three of the movies he "purchased" have now disappeared and how little Apple seems to care about this:

Me: Hey Apple, three movies I bought disappeared from my iTunes library.
Apple: Oh yes, those are not available anymore. Thank you for buying them. Here are two movie rentals on us!
Me: Wait... WHAT?? @tim_cook when did this become acceptable? pic.twitter.com/dHJ0wMSQH9


— Anders G da Silva (@drandersgs) September 10, 2018

Part 2:



Me: I am not really interested in the rentals. I want my movies back or my money back.



Apple: I totally get how you feel...



Me: Condescending, but go one...



Apple: You see, we are just a store front.



Me: Store front?



1/7 pic.twitter.com/U1D3Wj0zmZ


— Anders G da Silva (@drandersgs) September 11, 2018

Apple: Yeah, we take your money, but we are not responsible for what is sold. And,
we certainly do NOT guarantee you get to keep anything you buy in our store front.
We only guarantee that we get to keep your money.



2/7



— Anders G da Silva (@drandersgs) September 11, 2018

Me: I see... So, that "Buy" button is meaningless? It should maybe be called: "Feelin Lucky?"



Apple: I see you are unhappy. Have two more rentals on us.



3/7



— Anders G da Silva (@drandersgs) September 11, 2018

My guess is that with this tweet getting lots and lots of attention, Apple will eventually back down and "fix" the situation. But it shouldn't take going viral for you to not have the stuff you bought disappear thanks to a change in licensing. Indeed, it does seem like Apple telling users that they are "buying" content that might later disappear due to changes in licensing agreements could potentially be a deceptive practice that could lead to FTC or possibly state consumer protection claims:

I would love to file an FTC complaint about this. You shouldn’t be able to insist it’s a license and not a sale for copyright purposes and then advertise it as a sale to reap a higher price. Live by the sword, die by the sword. https://t.co/A2mk1nHRRF


— Blake Reid (@blakereid) September 12, 2018

Last year we had a podcast about a new book by two copyright professors about the "end of ownership" due to excessive copyright usage, and this is just yet another unfortunate example of what has happened when we lock everything up. You don't own what you've bought.



And, yes, it is not endorsing or advocating for piracy to note that this is one of the reasons why people pirate. Content that people pirate doesn't magically disappear when licenses change and giant multinational companies decide to reach into your library and memory hole your purchases. Don't want people to pirate so much? Stop doing this kind of anti-consumer bullshit.



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Originally Published: Wed, 12 Sep 2018 10:37:35 PDT
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[Matthew]

I stopped purchasing movies a LONG time ago.

I have never purchased, rented, or used, a Blu-ray or HD-DVD disc.  I have never purchased or rented an HD movie.  My computer doesn't have a Blu-ray drive.

The first movie I saw in HD was United 93.  I had previously seen it in the theater, and on DVD.  It was released on Blu-ray in early September 2011, for the 10-year anniversary of 9/11; I saw it on September 11.  I had been planning for months that it would be the first movie I would download with BitTorrent.  I had never successfully used BitTorrent before; the first time I downloaded a torrent was only a few days earlier.  (There had been one time years earlier that I had tried to download a torrent and failed, but at that time, I didn't understand how BitTorrent worked.  I didn't know that it used peer-to-peer distribution, and that there needed to be peers available.)

Why have I never purchased or rented an HD movie?

Hyped Digital Content Prohibition (HDCP).

It is a Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) system that uses end-to-end encryption.  It creates an outrageous scheme in which every company that makes operating systems, video player software, GPUs, video players, monitors, or televisions has to purchase a license from Intel for their product to be used to view HD movies.

[dueda]

Good luck keeping your hardware up to date. Soon you'll be out of smarphones, smartcars, smartTVs, smartshowers, smartkidneys, even smartjobs and smartblows. The next step is to create smartfunds and smartcredit, so we'll be totally screw'd AND royally robotized. Yes, HDCP shall be inside kids from the mom's belly...

[contrail]

Only way is to have a physical local copy yourself nowadays, pirating seems still to be the way to go to have complete ownership.

[stormium]

Only way is to have a physical local copy yourself nowadays, pirating seems still to be the way to go to have complete ownership.

This is going to sound un-pirate-ish but I like the concept of bandcamp:  I can preview the entire album and cherry pick the songs I like. 

Being able to download in lossless and lossy is a plus.

Being able to support an artist directly is a major plus, but that's not always the case as labels are also posting their artist's songs directly to that platform.

[contrail]

Only way is to have a physical local copy yourself nowadays, pirating seems still to be the way to go to have complete ownership.

This is going to sound un-pirate-ish but I like the concept of bandcamp:  I can preview the entire album and cherry pick the songs I like. 

Being able to download in lossless and lossy is a plus.

Being able to support an artist directly is a major plus, but that's not always the case as labels are also posting their artist's songs directly to that platform.

Not really "un-pirate-ish" for music, moves, games, and books that allow you to support the small creator directly. I was thinking more of those bigger companies that have monopolies and all sort of whacky distribution rights that control and try and always control their content and are scaled directly to make a buck not let people see and enjoy their content.

[dueda]

Yep, supporting creators in any field is good, overpaying greedy middle-men is no good.
About human hardware control and piracy, I think we're moving to "Altered Carbon", not soon, not exactly, but similar. Dude, we're in for a mess.

[Matthew]

Good luck keeping your hardware up to date.

This isn't applicable to the hardware I use.

In recent years, there have been technological advances that have made movie discs and movie streaming obsolete.  But the entertainment industry is refusing to adopt the new technology, because it doesn't allow them to control your use of products you purchase.

The biggest reason that people pirate movies and video games is that it it technologically superior to purchasing them legally.

If you pirate a movie or video game, you have it as a file on your computer.  If you want to play it on a television or projector, you can put it on a laptop and connect the laptop to the display.

I never use optical discs anymore for anything except archiving.

[Executive]

Even though I download a ton of new TV series ( mostly ) and movies, I still love the classic shows so I have no problem paying for DVD sets of the original Hawaii Five-O, Kojak, Columbo, The Carol Burnett Show, etc. to be part of my collection.

Have you noticed the prices of full series sets have gone down ? I can walk into a Fry's store here in California and purchase the entire 6 seasons ( 124 episodes including the TV movie pilot ) of The Rockford Files for $31 + sales tax . What a bargain ! That set is missing the 8 sequels that James Garner did in the 1990s, but that's OK. I'm sure they're available separately.

[dueda]

Good luck keeping your hardware up to date.

This isn't applicable to the hardware I use.

In recent years, there have been technological advances that have made movie discs and movie streaming obsolete.  But the entertainment industry is refusing to adopt the new technology, because it doesn't allow them to control your use of products you purchase.

The biggest reason that people pirate movies and video games is that it it technologically superior to purchasing them legally.

If you pirate a movie or video game, you have it as a file on your computer.  If you want to play it on a television or projector, you can put it on a laptop and connect the laptop to the display.

I never use optical discs anymore for anything except archiving.

Unless you're using 16mm film, Betamax tape, or some other dead tech, I can't imagine hardware without updates / upgrades.

As you said, modern tech advancements... there's always need for new stuff.

My TV is not that old but can't play H265 or even MKV files. No need to buy a new one, but I've to carry the notebook to the other room and connect cables, more an inconvenience than a deterrent, just I'd be happier with a simpler usb drive or WiFi transport, especially because the PC lacks a remote / IR port.

While I'd like to keep this 2012 setup (PC&TV) running up to 2062, I'm sure I'll be out of fresh apps long before. A Google Dongle could fix this situation, but then comes HDCP and other nasty bugs. So, upgrades are needed, and they are the final solution for piracy: Obsolescence. Piracy is getting old, says MP/RIAA.