Sony Deletes 551 Movies PlayStation Owners Paid For

maxverse

Related discussions: [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48730904 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48691346

giancarlostoro

They should at least make an effort to let you sync them into MoviesAnywhere which is supposed to solve the "I have this on iTunes, but not Android TV" problem by unlocking it across platforms if you sync your accounts. They should really let you permanently keep movies on defunct platforms as part of your standard MoviesAnywhere movie collection.

keraf

And with more and more content being distributed digitally, and even Sony announcing that physical disks won't be a thing from 2028 [0], the days of media ownership are gone. The only way to "own" content is it being DRM free (rare) or piracy. And ironically, DRMs justify the existence of piracy. [0] https://blog.playstation.com/2026/07/01/physical-disc-produc...

basisword

I'm surprised movies haven't yet moved to DRM free on purchases the way music did on iTunes back in 2009. With movie files being so large and people having streaming services integrated in their TV's I can't imagine there is all that much incentive for people to share them anyway. The only thing it does is help prevent situations like this.

eska

It should be illegal to have others purchase what you as a company only licensed and therefore aren’t legally allowed to sell.

piltdownman

Sony literally distributed a rootkit in the guise of DRM for Audio CDs back when piracy meant CD-R distribution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootk... Anyone remotely surprised at their history of utter contempt for the end-user need only remind themselves of SVP Steve Heckler's remarks to conference attendee's in 2000 "The industry will take whatever steps it needs to protect itself and protect its revenue streams ... It will not lose that revenue stream, no matter what ... Sony is going to take aggressive steps to stop this. We will develop technology that transcends the individual user." https://web.archive.org/web/20090318115847/http://www.nyfair... The remarks of Stewart Baker of the DHS admonishing Sony are as relevant today as they were then; namely that "it's your intellectual property - it's not your computer." https://web.archive.org/web/20051229031842/http://www.mp3new...

shadowtree

It is legitimately impossible to purchase certain movies, especially classic, in any format due to regional blocks. Simple example: "The Things of Life", a classic French movie from 1970. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Things_of_Life No way to get it in the US. No physical media, no streaming. It is on Apple TV ... in France. You can torrent it. Utterly brokem model. Music is the same btw, Apple Music and Spotify geoblock music. Workaround is to add to your library when traveling in EU. Insane.

NoSalt

Ever since Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc. started offering "free" online storage for photos, ever since streaming started to be popular, I have ALWAYS extolled the virtues of µSD card slots in phones and owning your own media (i.e., purchasing CDs and DVDs). Many people would give me a hard time about this, calling me a Luddite, but I will never lose access to my photos, music, or movies ... unless it is the end of the world as we know it, which I happily have on R.E.M.'s Eponymous album.

ge96

No refund? I have a similar grief with YouTube movies although in that one, they don't play UHD. Some do like Valerian plays at least in 1080P, most movies are capped to 480P unless you have an "approved device" eg. something probably riddled with ads.

rvz

Your purchase has been literally deleted.

steveBK123

Incredible timing with the news they are discontinuing disks in 2028. You will own nothing.

bilekas

It used to be that streaming services were an excellent option even over torrenting because of the ease of access and use. Now we're not even getting to retain what we buy, this is not a streaming service, these were sold to users individually. We've gone full circle where I honestly believe pirating is a far better offering. The root of the problem is these ridiculous content licensing agreements, it should be very very obvious to the customer when they're buying that "Hey, you will own this until X date when our content licensing agreement is finished" Not hidden by design in some dense ToS.

pgwalsh

Not the first time and not going to be the last. Unless you can download it to hardware you completely own and can make a backup, it's not really yours. Online purchases I can get on with, like Bandcamp are pretty good. I bought the new Globular album on CD and it took 10 days to get to me from the UK. I also had access to high quality downloads. That works, these other models do not.

c-hendricks

Should mention today Sony also announced the end of physical releases for their consoles, and the closure of the PS3 and PSVita stores.

jobs_throwaway

This is one reason why piracy is legitimate and important

jo4329j5

That's why I pirate content and will continue to pirate content. I'm not hurting artists. I go to shows and premiers and book signings. I'm perfectly fine with stealing from publishing cartels.

raluk

In similar fashon in year 2009 Amazon deleted books from Kindle. One of them was 1984 from George Orwell.

webdoodle

A friend of mine owned the first Ipod, and diligently ripped all his cd's and cut and pasted them too his device. I asked if he had backups, and he said he had the cd's. I told him too make a copy, just in case the Apple mafia came too delete his stuff. He didn't, and then after a move he lost or scratched many of his CD's. His only backup WAS the ripped MP3's. A few years later Apple deleted all of his music claiming he hadn't purchased them. He didn't even know how to download music. Every single MP3 he had he ripped himself...

montroser

That "thank you" at the end is particularly classy. Thank you for getting fucked and giving us your money.

glimshe

I've heard there's a service called PirateBay that offers movies free of DRM. Maybe people considering being Sony customers in the future should give it a try.