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Sony Deletes 551 Movies PlayStation Owners Paid For

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Re: Sony Deletes 551 Movies PlayStation Owners Paid For

#131

We need some kind of modern equivalent to the old proposed Digital Media Consumer's Rights Act but which protects people's rights to digital media they buy. These should never be sold and then taken away with no compensation like this. We need a law that forces companies to treat digital files the same as a physical purchase. They can't take it away and have to allow people to resell and loan out as well. And in case…

Not sure if you know this, but this is literally the Stop Killing Games movement. Despite the recent apparent setback as reported in the news, the organisers are in talks with EU MPs that are writing sweeping legislation to address this sort of thing across all digital mediums. You only need legislation like this to hold in one major market to make a big difference.

The GP comment mentioned Minecraft servers. The full story is that California politicians were discussing Stop Killing Games and and that gamers were willing and capable of running their own servers, and ESA argued against that by saying private servers are illegal, basically.

Politicians are taking about it. Anyone who purchases media cares about it. Support for copyright reform is only going to grow, so hopefully we'll see some.

Re: Sony Deletes 551 Movies PlayStation Owners Paid For

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kinda. On Steam I can still play games I bought 18 years ago. Still walled garden, but they act way better.

Till Gabe dies and valve is bought out by private equity

Imagine if Gabe went the Yvon Chouinard way? (founder of Patagonia refused to IPO, never sold controlling stake, recently left the entire company to an environmental conservation trust - certified LEGEND)

Gabe seems like the kinda guy who is in the Game for the love of games.

It would be a legendary legacy indeed to commit Valve and it's profits to a trust which defends digital rights and freedom.

Re: Sony Deletes 551 Movies PlayStation Owners Paid For

#134

We need some kind of modern equivalent to the old proposed Digital Media Consumer's Rights Act but which protects people's rights to digital media they buy. These should never be sold and then taken away with no compensation like this. We need a law that forces companies to treat digital files the same as a physical purchase. They can't take it away and have to allow people to resell and loan out as well. And in case…

Not sure if you know this, but this is literally the Stop Killing Games movement. Despite the recent apparent setback as reported in the news, the organisers are in talks with EU MPs that are writing sweeping legislation to address this sort of thing across all digital mediums. You only need legislation like this to hold in one major market to make a big difference.

[deleted]

Re: Sony Deletes 551 Movies PlayStation Owners Paid For

#135
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're both to blame. Studio Canal insisted on a licensing agreement that works this way, and Sony agreed to it to sell their content. For Sony, the correct move here would have been to not list Studio Canal titles in the first place, and put out a very public statement saying that they aren't being listed until Studio Canal agrees to make purchased licenses perpetual as they should be.

> Both to blame IANAL but I think the US law approach is to rely on chaining, so the #1 blame is on Sony until Sony proves it isn't. 1. Consumers who were damaged sue Sony for damages. 2. If Sony loses, Sony sues Studio Canal for damages. 3. If Studio Canal loses... ?

Correct. In theory, Sony should have warranted that they have the rights to sell the thing the way they sold it. If they didn't have the rights to sell a movie perpetually, then that's on them.

Re: Sony Deletes 551 Movies PlayStation Owners Paid For

#136

2 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48718967 4 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48691346 4 years ago ( so it's not the first time studioCanal has done this): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32010317

It's interesting that (in one regard) Sony is getting a PR win with the "StudioCanal has done this" narrative.

Another perspective: In accordance with the licensing system that Sony and their lobbyists helped establish, Sony's licensing agreement with StudioCanal came up for renewal. Sony decided that they didn't want to pay StudioCanal's perfectly reasonable() asking price.

this is StudioCanal's perspective.

Re: Sony Deletes 551 Movies PlayStation Owners Paid For

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither does Sony (anymore), apparently. They still sold them.

Sony sold them while they still had the license with a clause that they could remove them at any time.

Yep. That's the argument.

People don't like that though. We should change the laws so that is illegal. We can just make laws we want--we're allowed to do that.

Re: Sony Deletes 551 Movies PlayStation Owners Paid For

#140

We need some kind of modern equivalent to the old proposed Digital Media Consumer's Rights Act but which protects people's rights to digital media they buy. These should never be sold and then taken away with no compensation like this. We need a law that forces companies to treat digital files the same as a physical purchase. They can't take it away and have to allow people to resell and loan out as well. And in case…

We already have a pretty resilient solution called piracy.
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