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“If you leave, we'll smash all your digital purchases into oblivion.”

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Re: “If you leave, we'll smash all your digital purchases into oblivion.”

#11

Post by downerending »

DantesKite wrote: post #8
downerending wrote: post #2

Yeah, super-irritating. I bought about a dozen movies through Google Play before I realized that their platform was going to fail.

I've been eye-ing a lot of movies on Google Play recently. Wasn't sure about making the jump, but now I'm curious. What makes you think they're going to fail? Any big warning signs?

That was too aggressive. Better to say that it's failed for me, and I suspect it will fail for others. YMMV.

In my case, I lost access to one of my Google accounts, for no apparent reason, and I have been unable to regain access. The movies I have are actually attached to my other account, but the message seems clear--they can go away at any time with no recourse.

In principle this is true for Amazon, Apple, and other Play competitors. In practice, I haven't heard of such cases, and because their economic model is different, this seems a lot less likely, to me.

More broadly, Google has a track record of discontinuing services, which also makes me nervous.

Re: “If you leave, we'll smash all your digital purchases into oblivion.”

#12

Post by WorldMaker »

DantesKite wrote: post #8
downerending wrote: post #2

Yeah, super-irritating. I bought about a dozen movies through Google Play before I realized that their platform was going to fail.

I've been eye-ing a lot of movies on Google Play recently. Wasn't sure about making the jump, but now I'm curious. What makes you think they're going to fail? Any big warning signs?

It looks like Google's current focus has been moving things out of Google Play sub-brands to YouTube sub-brands with their own new apps. Or at least that's what ads and upsells in YouTube itself keep trying to tell me? No idea if Google has made any public announcements one way or the other, but the growing confusion certainly doesn't help anyone figure out what Google's strategy here is (or if it even has one or even if this is just like that "new messenger app every year, X% chance one dies this year" russian roulette thing they do).

Re: “If you leave, we'll smash all your digital purchases into oblivion.”

#13

Post by WorldMaker »

I think Digital Asset rights fights are going to be big in the next couple of decades. Especially as account owners start to mature and realize their investments and start asking hard questions such as estate planning. (Can you pass on your digital assets/libraries to your children? The answers there [which currently are most "no"] are going to surprise an increasing number of people over the next few years.)

Re: “If you leave, we'll smash all your digital purchases into oblivion.”

#14

Post by serf »

ALittleLight wrote: post #9
jjgreen wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I buy a cheese sandwich and there's no cheese in it, then I'm entitled to my money back. Same here, give the "purchaser" their money back.

Some things work like that. If I buy tickets to a concert, then decide not to go to that concert, I'm not entitled to my money back.

>If I buy tickets to a concert, then decide not to go to that concert, I'm not entitled to my money back.

that's not some universal truth, that's a loss-reduction scheme that certain live event ticket sales groups adhere to.

In some cases it isn't even loss-reduction, it's just a means to increase profit; there may not be a loss associated with refunding a ticket to a venue that isn't sold out and has unassigned seating other than some virtual infrastructure loss like "they used the bandwidth of our service without creating a profit this session ", which is basically the equivalent of a restocking fee at a small pawnshop where an already hourly (otherwise idle) paid employee just throws the product back on a shelf (aka : bullshit).

Re: “If you leave, we'll smash all your digital purchases into oblivion.”

#17

Post by stubish »

WorldMaker wrote: post #13

I think Digital Asset rights fights are going to be big in the next couple of decades. Especially as account owners start to mature and realize their investments and start asking hard questions such as estate planning. (Can you pass on your digital assets/libraries to your children? The answers there [which currently are most "no"] are going to surprise an increasing number of people over the next few years.)

Uptake of subscription services might make this a non-issue, if it is sizable enough to make a minority of people who want to own media. If the providers of subscription services can solve the disappearing and exclusive content problems. Maybe fights over rights will be there instead, with 'exclusive' distribution rights to media being limited and a right to buy. I tend to think that a change such as requiring copyright holders to sell to everyone or no-one under the same terms would mean us consumers would no longer be stuck needing to hoard, and most of us would be happy to pay our monthly fees to have access to everything delivered to our TVs.

Re: “If you leave, we'll smash all your digital purchases into oblivion.”

#18

Post by harry8 »

Apple did this to my wife when she moved countries. Property is theft, apparently so some are justified in stealing it without compensation. How it is legal in any civilized country or not against WTO rules i can't understand. Maybe it is illegal. Maybe it is contrary to WTO rules?

Re: “If you leave, we'll smash all your digital purchases into oblivion.”

#19

Post by harry8 »

wmf wrote: post #3
downerending wrote: post #2

Yeah, super-irritating. I bought about a dozen movies through Google Play before I realized that their platform was going to fail.

You may be able to sync those onto Movies Anywhere. I know that fixing DRM with more/different DRM isn't great but they're sort of trying.

They are very trying, aren't they. I find it's the dishonesty that is most trying.

Full cash refund is honest. Anything else is fraud.

Re: “If you leave, we'll smash all your digital purchases into oblivion.”

#20

Post by slayback »

WorldMaker wrote: post #13

I think Digital Asset rights fights are going to be big in the next couple of decades. Especially as account owners start to mature and realize their investments and start asking hard questions such as estate planning. (Can you pass on your digital assets/libraries to your children? The answers there [which currently are most "no"] are going to surprise an increasing number of people over the next few years.)

When my wife and I did our estate planning we had the lawyer put specific terms in to help ensure that our future (and now current) kids would assume ownership of all digital accounts. At the time there was only one example from another state we were able to use that had been proven successful in court, so that’s what we adopted.

Now that we’ve moved to California I need to update the documents to fit our laws as well the current understanding of the law is. Point being I’m seeing a lawyer soon for this specific case alone and the wording MUST be tested in court for us to even know where to start. For anyone studying law, IP law will make some money for now and quite a while still.

P.S. if anyone can recommend a Bay Area estate attorney with this experience please let me and others know!

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