Sony deletes more movies from the accounts of people who ‘bought’ them • Hacker News Board

Re: Sony deletes more movies from the accounts of people who ‘bought’ them

#221

Post by the_doctah » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 5:39 PM UTC

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #212

papyrus9244 wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Laws are great and all. But what we really need is a massive boycott. Stop buying shit manufactured or sold by Sony for a year. That alone will probably force them to backtrack every single anti consumer decision they've made recently.

> But what we really need is a massive boycott Is it? What’s the most effective boycott you can think of ever achieved?

Maybe not the most effective but Helldivers rolled back the requirement to link a Playstation account (on PC) after massive outrage and pushback.

Re: Sony deletes more movies from the accounts of people who ‘bought’ them

#222

Post by Jtarii » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 5:41 PM UTC

stronglikedan wrote: post #186

SlightlyLeftPad wrote: post #183

Without laws to force companies to honor this, The only reasonable answer to this ownership issue will end up being piracy. Also, “Buying” the movie and making a copy of it for personal use shouldn’t be illegal.

> Also, “Buying” the movie and making a copy of it for personal use shouldn’t be illegal. Unless I missed something recently, it's not illegal. You've always had the right to make backups of content that you purchased legally. It's the distribution that has been illegal.

It is legal to rip a digital copy of a movie you purcahsed from itunes to your hard drive?

I would have assumed it would have at least been against whatever TOC you agreed to when signing up to itunes.

Re: Sony deletes more movies from the accounts of people who ‘bought’ them

#223

Post by dghlsakjg » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 5:41 PM UTC

lemoncucumber wrote: post #207

em500 wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this type of legislation will have any kind of real world effect. Apple App store labels all their buttons with "Get". Google Play Store just prints the price on the button for paid apps/games.

Apple does the same thing as Google, the button is only labeled "Get" for free apps, for paid apps it's labeled with the price. Paid apps largely failed as a business model though (why would a consumer take a risk on buying a paid app that they can't try before they buy) so most apps that you pay for are free apps with IAP subscriptions... which I guess makes it a little more explicit that you're renting the app, for…

I think we've also moved towards subscriptions as apps become clients for a backend service.

EG. A mapping app that includes a one time bundle of maps that don’t get updated can be sold as a one time purchase. If you provide continuous updates, which most people expect now, pulling off a one time purchase business model is HARD. The other option is versioned access or time limited support, which is really just a subscription model by a different name. That said I wish versioned access was still a thing. Photoshop CS is still fine for what I want, I’m happy to pay for an upgrade when it makes sense, but a continuing subscription to software that hasn’t substantially changed in a decade sucks.

Re: Sony deletes more movies from the accounts of people who ‘bought’ them

#224

Post by IAmBroom » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 5:45 PM UTC

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #107

goldenarm wrote: post #20

IANAL, but is it illegal to have a "Buy" button that is just a disguised "Rent" button? If not, should we change the law?

If Walmart sold you a lawnmower, but you had to leave the lawnmower in their store, would you consider it your property just because they let you start it up and hear it rumble? If you wouldn't do that for Walmart, why would you do it for Sony?

That's a truly weird analogy.

Re: Sony deletes more movies from the accounts of people who ‘bought’ them

#225

Post by danaris » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 5:45 PM UTC

papyrus9244 wrote: post #166

ikekkdcjkfke wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember that the power is always with the people. We can enact any law we want

Laws are great and all. But what we really need is a massive boycott. Stop buying shit manufactured or sold by Sony for a year. That alone will probably force them to backtrack every single anti consumer decision they've made recently.

Boycotts don't work nearly as well nowadays because

a) Consumers don't have enough money already, so they're both stressed out and getting fewer things for themselves. These combine to mean that they're less likely to be willing to give up what little luxuries they have left, even if you're just asking them to substitute one media property for another.

b) The companies being targeted are just too damn big. The consolidation that began in the '80s has reached truly ludicrous levels in 2026, meaning that the company can just...ignore drops in profits for months or even years while consumers get worn out.

Re: Sony deletes more movies from the accounts of people who ‘bought’ them

#226

Post by RajT88 » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 5:45 PM UTC

bee_rider wrote: post #201

dantillberg wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will be quite the novel legal case the first time someone makes an unauthorized copy of a baby.

Make an unauthorized copy of a baby that grew up to be famous, so you can use their likeness and get a bonus case.

Who knows? In 100 years, we may be cloning famous people and forcing the clones to make movies and TV on the cheap.

Full House: Angelina Jolie reboot (Starring Angelina Jolie baby clones)

Re: Sony deletes more movies from the accounts of people who ‘bought’ them

#227

Post by trencedamp » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 5:52 PM UTC

JauntyHatAngle wrote: post #194

redwall_hp wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just loud Internet people. The Switch 2 is the second fastest selling game system of all time, and is keeping up with the trajectory of the first Switch, which shipped the most units of any gaming system. It'll probably get further boosts as Splatoon Raiders comes out (Splatoon is huge in Japan) and other anticipated titles. https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2026/06/switch-2s-first-ye... I can't say I know anyon…

>I can't say I know anyone IRL who has any interest in leaving PlayStation As a counterpoint to that. Most of my 30+ year old dad gamer friends (all of us are the type to own a PC, switch and ps5 pretty much) all are considering whether this will be our last sony generation as most of us are either physical copy people or suspect the pricing will be bad without a second hand market to compete. I don't think there is…

Part of what I've always hated about consoles is the inevitable push toward an entirely new generation of hardware when the current hardware is more than capable.

The best games I've played in the last year would run on a PS4 and probably even a PS3 with a little optimization, yet we're already at the "end" of the PS5. It's so disingenuous. We should be squeezing everything we can out of the wonderful hardware we have today instead of chucking it for the new shiny thing, but instead we're force fed a new box, with a new exclusive title, with graphics you can barely distinguish from what we already have and more restrictions on what you can do.

Re: Sony deletes more movies from the accounts of people who ‘bought’ them

#228

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 5:53 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Sony deletes more movies from the accounts of people who ‘bought’ them

#229

Post by pdpi » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 5:53 PM UTC

pennomi wrote: post #177

pdpi wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that we've always been buying licences, it's just that the licence used to be attached to a physical object, so transferring the licence was as easy as transferring ownership of that physical object. It's never been legal to copy a book, film, or music album and sell the copies, for example, because the licence doesn't allow it. Hence freeware, shareware, and copyleft licences.

It’s not about transfer, it’s about being practically irrevocable.

I wasn't clear: My point is that limitations on transfer serve are proof that we've always been using licences.

Yes, physical media being de facto irrevocable is the important part, but even that has caveats (such as Bluray AACS revocations).

Re: Sony deletes more movies from the accounts of people who ‘bought’ them

#230

Post by chaosharmonic » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 5:55 PM UTC

delecti wrote: post #199

em500 wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this type of legislation will have any kind of real world effect. Apple App store labels all their buttons with "Get". Google Play Store just prints the price on the button for paid apps/games.

In a thread about movies, it's perhaps more relevant to talk about how those two platforms handle movies . In a browser, the top category on Google's "Movies & TV" is "New to buy or rent". The buttons on the page for a movie are labeled "$X.XX Buy" and "$X.XX Rent". In the Google TV app on my android phone, the two buttons are "Rent 4K // $X.XX" and "Buy 4K // $X.XX". The splash images in the Apple TV app iOS say "Bu…

Not to defend this, just to further observe the different nature of their marketing -- games also haven't historically had similar "rent" options in the first place. Timed demos are a newer trend, demos in general have usually been smaller sections of the content, and they typically aren't something you're paying for.