Sony erases digital content from libraries
arstechnica.com
Sony erases digital content from libraries
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Re: Sony erases digital content from libraries
#2Related:
"PlayStation Is Deleting 551 Movies from Customers' Accounts" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48691346 26-jun-2026 208 comments
"Studio Canal Movies purchased on PlayStation Store removed without refund" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48718967 29-jun-2026 125 comments
Re: Sony erases digital content from libraries
#3They were never "purchases" and it's more that the terminology has been faulty and misleading, more so than the business model.
The rank-and-file consumer wanted to believe that "purchasing" something was permanent, but the metaphor is leaky. If I purchase a table from Ikea, then I take the kit home, I assemble it, I store the table, I maintain the table, I clean the table, and I can keep the table around for as long as I can pay rent on the apartment or whever it's being housed.
The same goes for a CD or DVD: you can keep playing it as long as YOU store it, YOU clean it, and YOU have a machine that can decode and reproduce the content.
But with digital intangibles in the cloud, none of this holds true. Your "purchase" belongs to Chad and it's in Chad's garage:
So how can you be sore when Chad tires of the sweet deal you cooked up?
The same type of leaky metaphor happens with "piracy-as-theft". You copied some content and stole it! No it's not stolen: stealing is depriving a rightful owner of property. The rightful owner (or copyright holder) can calculate all their lost revenue and try to hold you accountable for that, but with piracy and copying, nobody's deprived of the content itself. Some cultures accept copying and plagiarism as a great honor and compliment to the original authors...
Re: Sony erases digital content from libraries
#4That they don't value knowledge as a good in and of itself is exemplified by the fact that the first (and only) e-book which I "purchased" using a $10 store credit offered for browsing on a certain day (it got me a check from the ebook pricing settlement) for my Sony PRS-505 from the Sony store was so riddled with typos I had to check out a copy from the library so as to determine what some text was so as to submit a list of errors for correction.
(That said, I've _never_ bought an e-book since which didn't have at least one typo or mis-formatted bit of text, including _Dune_ which I didn't get until it had been available as an ebook for _years_)
Re: Sony erases digital content from libraries
#5They were never "purchases" and it's more that the terminology has been faulty and misleading, more so than the business model. The rank-and-file consumer wanted to believe that "purchasing" something was permanent, but the metaphor is leaky. If I purchase a table from Ikea, then I take the kit home, I assemble it, I store the table, I maintain the table, I clean the table, and I can keep the table around for as long…
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Re: Sony erases digital content from libraries
#6I never subscribe to any music/movie services. If I can find them I buy DVDs and if I can’t I download them.
Re: Sony erases digital content from libraries
#7The real issue here are the terms of the deal that allow Sony to revoke access to content at any time. If Sony only purchases a 5 year license to use a movie, then that expiration date should be communicated to the customer ahead of time.
The idea that companies can take away games, movies, etc that you've paid for with the expectation you would have them forever is toxic for society.
Re: Sony erases digital content from libraries
#8They were never "purchases" and it's more that the terminology has been faulty and misleading, more so than the business model. The rank-and-file consumer wanted to believe that "purchasing" something was permanent, but the metaphor is leaky. If I purchase a table from Ikea, then I take the kit home, I assemble it, I store the table, I maintain the table, I clean the table, and I can keep the table around for as long…
> They were never "purchases" and it's more that the terminology has been faulty and misleading, more so than the business model.
They were advertised as purchases. That they were not in actuality has a name: fraud.
Re: Sony erases digital content from libraries
#9To the defence of Sony :
I was getting concerned, but if only StudioCanal movies are getting pulled as Sony doesn't need to pay for that, *it's but a loss*
The company was bought by the same tycoon who bought mainstream media to get frequencies, then replaced journalists with conservative anchors who ditch the news and rant about feminists and Muslims all day.
They were recently known for Bac Nord. It is honestly a very good cop movie, but that also outrageously rewrites a case in which dirty drug dealing cops were busted, in case some viewers are not willing to make the diff between reality and a good fiction
They made the headline around the Cannes festival this year, saying they should no longer work with woke movies.
Their case is getting embarrassing in France, as their owner is now the first (but not the only) purveyor of obscurantism for the masses
Re: Sony erases digital content from libraries
#10That they don't value knowledge as a good in and of itself is exemplified by the fact that the first (and only) e-book which I "purchased" using a $10 store credit offered for browsing on a certain day (it got me a check from the ebook pricing settlement) for my Sony PRS-505 from the Sony store was so riddled with typos I had to check out a copy from the library so as to determine what some text was so as to submit a…
It is publishers who generate ebooks – often with poor quality control as has been well known for two decades now – and provide them to distributors. Sony is just one distributor for such publisher-generated ebooks. Sony was probably unaware of the errors in that one of its myriad inventory until a customer alerted them, and the most it could offer would be a refund.
Obviously Sony has neither the right nor the competence to take a book it receives from a publisher and alter it to improve its quality. Your annoyance of someone “not valuing knowledge” should be directed at the publisher.