PlayStation Will Not Delete Discovery TV Shows After All (gamesindustry.biz) 21
PlayStation will no longer be removing over 1,300 Discovery TV shows from its platform next month. From a report: Sony had previously announced that users will not be able to watch Discovery content on PlayStation from December 31, even if they had already purchased it. However, the firm now says that due to an 'updated licensing agreement' with Warner Bros -- which owns the Discovery brand -- consumers will now be able to access their previously purchased shows 'for at least the next 30 months.'
Still not owned (Score:2)
This still doesn't mean that people own the stuff they have bought. Have they updated their storefront to emphasize that these are rentals?
Re: Still not owned (Score:3)
This kind of thing, that "buying" is not a perpetual licence, should not be in the fine print, but in the wording of the offer. They should use another word instead of "buying" if a license is not perpetual.
Re: (Score:3)
The text of the agreement that no one ever reads, makes it quite clear that you are not buying the video-- a phrasing that goes back to the VHS and CD days. Just because I buy the VHS tapes of Star Wars, that doesn't mean I own Star Wars. I have purchased media, which contains the movie(s), and the right to watch those movies in the privacy of my own home.
What's changed is that you no longer own the media. Someone else does, and you have limited rights to view their media., with heavy restrictions on wha
Re: Still not owned (Score:4, Insightful)
When you bought the media you still had 100% control of it until physical degradation made it unwatchable, in the same way you don't expect a hammer to last forever despite buying it. If the hammer breaks it breaks, tough luck. Same with a VHS tape. This, however, is someone else making a decision that your ownership has ended. That's the difference.
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This, however, is someone else making a decision that your ownership has ended.
No, this is someone deciding that your license has ended, because they always reserve the right to terminate your license whenever they want.
Your ownership? You never had it in the first place.
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Thank you for splitting hairs.
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Yeah it's the license. The same principle the RIAA used to tell people they could back up their music, but if their CD's got stolen from their cars/homes, they were obligated to delete the "backups" from their computers after ripping.
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Or the license should be with the content not the provider. Ie. if you purchase the rights to view a season of a Discovery show it's registered with Discovery so regardless of the platform you're on you can watch that season. And as the show is licensed to different networks your privileges follow OR if Discovery is sold that is part of the contract.
Blockchain.
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I have an Apple Arcade subscription, and I understand that my access to the titles will end once I cancel the subscription, or when the service shuts down and stops letting me pay the monthly fee. But these streaming services use the "buy" language and have prices on par with what traditional DVD/BR used to cost, so people get the impression that the license is perpetual.
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I refuse to "buy" anything. Usually I rent if something is not already included in a subscription. Renting is good for me because I rarely watch a movie more than once. If I really feel the need to buy anything, though, I'm screwed: no physical media is released in my country anymore. I had to import "Don't Trust the B--- in Apartment 23" and now I can only play it on my computer. (For me, it's a honest way to violate a license.)
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Yeah, the problem is only kicked down the road a couple of years.
But the thing is, Playstation stopped selling TV shows and movies way back in 2018 or so. Funny thing is, they already deleted a bunch of stuff - they issued a similar notice about Studio Ghibli stuff being removed in 2021 but it appears no one noticed they all got deleted.
And technically, Sony has prohibit
You know what that means (Score:2)
"Available for the next 30 months"
You know what that means, start making copies now.
Duplicate that shit and you'll have a copy that even the suits at PlayStation can't take away from you.
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Re: (Score:2)
To me it sounds like WB is to blame. If you buy a WB bluray that comes with a digital copy, unless you bought it at release there is a strong change the key expired.
WB is part of the problem, sure. Those "digital copies" through Apple's store or whatever actually cost WB money, though, and I suspect that renewing them after they expire costs money, too. Disney chooses to keep paying. WB doesn't. This tells you nothing more than that WB are cheapskates/greedy.
But the real problem is Sony. Always has been. They chose to enter into a time-limited licensing agreement with WB, and chose to sell licenses as perpetual, when in reality those licenses were dependent on be
Update the Headline (Score:3)
Buy physical. Create, obtain and use backups. Do not buy from digital storefront who can later control, shred and destroy your access to content.
What's that new saw going around? (Score:2)
"...you'll own nothing and be happy."
Streaming is for Suckers. Convenient, sure -- but you own nothing.
Are you happy about it?
You are? Baaa. What pretty little sheep you are, ready for the fleecing.
Purchase (Score:2)
Companies and me must have gone to different kindergartens because we both have different definitions of what purchase means.
Lease, not buy (Score:2)
The word they should use is something like lease, with conditions and possibly a minimum guaranteed term (violation of which would be grounds for a refund). But like a certain director said, you don't own it unless you have a physical copy that you have the keys to access.
In other words... (Score:2)