"How many people here bought digital media? You are all wrong, none of you have, you only rented it. If you lose the account it is all gone" Rob Pike, unspin
Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
11–20 of 479 posts
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#12I've seen the phrase "Own it in {HD/BluRay/4K}" so many times and always cringe. You're just owning a limited license ( extremely limited, in the case of digital goods) to watch. The average HN user can spot the difference and say "of course you don't own it, and in case of streaming, you only have access for as long as the service is around", but that's not what the average consumer sees. "Buy" and "own" have very s…
I've seen the phrase "Own it in {HD/BluRay/4K}" so many times and always cringe. You're just owning a limited license (extremely limited, in the case of digital goods) to watch.
That's technically correct, but revoking the license for a specific DVD is effectively impossible. If you have the plastic disc you will be able to play it until the disc wears out. The same should be true for digital purchases, or the limitations should be made clearer.
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#13This seams the core of Apple's defence:
Apple contends that '[n]o reasonable consumer would believe' that purchased content would remain on the iTunes platform indefinitely
This strikes at the root of our society's definition of ownership. Clarification should not depend on Apple, or even a court. This should be enshrined by an explicit law. Using the word 'license' or 'rent' instead of 'buy' for something you can't own seems the minimum a consumer should demand.
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#14The old discussions around digital assets resurface again.
My perspective is really simple: If I buy something then its mine. If I lease something then its temporary. Buying a lease is actually just leasing.
Digital assets are more often just fancy lease agreements. At best you get to keep access to what you paid for when you stop paying. At worst its literally just a lease. The real kicker is you often can't simply format shift without consequences, because it was just a lease only on that platform and the terms are: Pay for access; Stop paying and you're out. Want it somewhere else? No can do.
I wonder if I could bequeath my Apple Music collection? Probably not. That's the big reveal right there. Its not actually ever yours. Never was.
Apple Music is somewhat better than a long term lease. Last time I looked you could write the MP3s to a CD. Not sure if that's still true.
Contrast this with Spotify: pure subscription. Good luck looking for a "Write to CD" option. That's completely out of scope. And no one is surprised. At least its clearly spelt out. But still a lease. You're only buying access.
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#15Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#16Well, because of the way Apple licenses films from studios, you never really own them. Presumably when Apple adds a film to iTunes for customers to buy they know how long they'll be keeping it on their servers for people to access it. It'll be part of the license. Unless Apple can guarantee that the film will be available after that time (eg Apple negotiated a non-revokable extension that they'll legally bound to tak…
If the customer purchased/bought the movie then Apple should offer a way to download the movie (in the case that Apple removes it from their catalogue). This would ensure customer has the ability to keep their purchase. When I buy something whether ebooks, movies, music then I do not expect it to be removed from access at a later date unless an option for me to store the item is offered.
From 2018: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnarcher/2018/09/17/apple-res...
tl;dr: once downloaded to a device you have it until you delete it.
It’s not ideal and I do wish they would retain the right to keep an archived copy on their servers for all customers who have bought it so they could re-download or stream at any time without having to deal with backup and restore.
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#17I've seen the phrase "Own it in {HD/BluRay/4K}" so many times and always cringe. You're just owning a limited license ( extremely limited, in the case of digital goods) to watch. The average HN user can spot the difference and say "of course you don't own it, and in case of streaming, you only have access for as long as the service is around", but that's not what the average consumer sees. "Buy" and "own" have very s…
I've seen the phrase "Own it in {HD/BluRay/4K}" so many times and always cringe. You're just owning a limited license (extremely limited, in the case of digital goods) to watch. That's technically correct, but revoking the license for a specific DVD is effectively impossible. If you have the plastic disc you will be able to play it until the disc wears out. The same should be true for digital purchases, or the limita…
DVD regions limit where you can watch something. Performance rights limit to who you can show it. Copyright limits how you can distribute it. These kinds of things were happening before and are something we're accustomed to, but I agree DRM and the possibility to rescind access makes it much worse.
That's why I'm a happy streaming subscriber. No lies there.
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#18I've seen the phrase "Own it in {HD/BluRay/4K}" so many times and always cringe. You're just owning a limited license ( extremely limited, in the case of digital goods) to watch. The average HN user can spot the difference and say "of course you don't own it, and in case of streaming, you only have access for as long as the service is around", but that's not what the average consumer sees. "Buy" and "own" have very s…
I've seen the phrase "Own it in {HD/BluRay/4K}" so many times and always cringe. You're just owning a limited license (extremely limited, in the case of digital goods) to watch. That's technically correct, but revoking the license for a specific DVD is effectively impossible. If you have the plastic disc you will be able to play it until the disc wears out. The same should be true for digital purchases, or the limita…
What's it like for blu-ray? I seem to recall that there's a master key or the like involved, which may require updating the br-player to successfully decode new discs if they change the key later on (which I also seem to recall...). Not FUDing, just not recalling completely, so can be completely off..
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#19Well, because of the way Apple licenses films from studios, you never really own them. Presumably when Apple adds a film to iTunes for customers to buy they know how long they'll be keeping it on their servers for people to access it. It'll be part of the license. Unless Apple can guarantee that the film will be available after that time (eg Apple negotiated a non-revokable extension that they'll legally bound to tak…
If the customer purchased/bought the movie then Apple should offer a way to download the movie (in the case that Apple removes it from their catalogue). This would ensure customer has the ability to keep their purchase. When I buy something whether ebooks, movies, music then I do not expect it to be removed from access at a later date unless an option for me to store the item is offered.
>When I buy something whether ebooks, movies, music then I do not expect it to be removed from access at a later date unless an option for me to store the item is offered.
That’s due to technical limitations. The copyright holders would like to have this possibility very much :^)
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#20"How many people here bought digital media? You are all wrong, none of you have, you only rented it. If you lose the account it is all gone" Rob Pike, unspin
What about NFTs?