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Apple sued for terminating account with $25k worth of apps and videos

arstechnica.com

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Re: Apple sued for terminating account with $25k worth of apps and videos

#141

Post by MiddleEndian »

joshmanders wrote: post #48
l-lousy wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Change it to “rent” or give the option to download. You can’t have a contract where the terms change at any time for any reason (apples account termination policy)

They already have a rent option, so Rent (As long as your account is in good standing) and Rent (for a few hours) would be even more confusing.

> They already have a rent option, so Rent (As long as your account is in good standing) and Rent (for a few hours) would be even more confusing.

Perhaps they should make a less confusing service if they do not want their customers to be confused.

Re: Apple sued for terminating account with $25k worth of apps and videos

#144

Post by _jal »

im3w1l wrote: post #140
_jal wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a mob or a single unaccountable low-level account reviewer may declare someone an "out law" I take it you prefer that power to be reserved for those with high status?

The nice thing with high status people is that there are so few of them. Makes it easier to hold them accountable.

> Makes it easier to hold them accountable

Sounds interesting. Let me know when that starts happening.

Re: Apple sued for terminating account with $25k worth of apps and videos

#145

Post by scatters »

joshmanders wrote: post #130
interestica wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If I had expected to own it forever, I'd probably have bought DVD's, not digital. This is the opposite of what it should be. DVDs degrade over time, and can last for as little as 10 years. Digital should be mean transportable and convertible indefinitely.

Sure but who's gonna pay to keep those servers up in perpetuity? I would never buy digital thinking I'll have access indefinitely. At least with DVD's I can rip them and burn them on new DVD's if I wanted them to be "forever"

The company can use part of your purchase price to buy a long term debt instrument (e.g. a 30-year T-bond) and use the yield to keep the server running.

Or, more realistically and prosaically, they can and should debit the net present liability of keeping the server running in perpetuity from their corporate accounts at the time of purchase. Accountancy knows how to value such things and finance delights in monetizing them.

Re: Apple sued for terminating account with $25k worth of apps and videos

#146

Post by crazygringo »

Diggsey wrote: post #17

IMO it wouldn't matter if they'd used the word "Rent" or "Licence" instead: it would still be unreasonable. Account termination is entirely at Apple's discretion, meaning the term of your "rental" is not known when you actually pay for the content. For most people the term will be "forever", so that is the expectation. It's simple: if apple want to terminate your account, they need to refund you for any content you l…

Seriously. It's well past time that Congress passes a law explicitly to that effect -- if you lose access to purchased content, whether because your account was terminated or the content was removed, you get 100% refunded. End of story. Any TOS to the contrary are invalid.

Re: Apple sued for terminating account with $25k worth of apps and videos

#147

Post by cycomanic »

Maybe what people should do is "buy" the movie on itunes, watch it and then do a credit card charge-back (possibly for e.g. 90% of the amount) with the justification that they read the terms in detail and realised that they are just renting not owning the media.

Obviously if only a couple of people would do it, there would be no effect except them getting their accounts suspended. However, it would be very interesting how this would pan out if a very large number of people would do it. How would apple react and how would the credit card companies react. Maybe someone should start a campaign to do just this.

Re: Apple sued for terminating account with $25k worth of apps and videos

#148

Post by meroes »

grishka wrote: post #135
1cvmask wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do we know why his account was terminated? I couldn’t find anything on that.

It shouldn't matter. If you're banned from going to a particular physical store for whatever reason, wrongly or not, you still get to keep everything you've ever bought there. If a physical store goes out of business, you also get to keep everything you've ever bought there. Point being, IRL stores don't retain any control over anything you buy.

If I buy a semester at a private school, I still have to pay for the entire semester if I'm expelled (sometimes a smaller but still substantial early leave amount).

I know neither of our analogies mirror exactly is going on, but that's part of the point. Maybe this is a different class of "ownership". There seems to be many classes already close to what Apple wants.

I'm not sure who will win. I hope it's not Apple, but I've already agreed to worse agreements getting through high school and college.

Re: Apple sued for terminating account with $25k worth of apps and videos

#149

Post by pureliquidhw »

crazygringo wrote: post #146
Diggsey wrote: post #17

IMO it wouldn't matter if they'd used the word "Rent" or "Licence" instead: it would still be unreasonable. Account termination is entirely at Apple's discretion, meaning the term of your "rental" is not known when you actually pay for the content. For most people the term will be "forever", so that is the expectation. It's simple: if apple want to terminate your account, they need to refund you for any content you l…

Seriously. It's well past time that Congress passes a law explicitly to that effect -- if you lose access to purchased content, whether because your account was terminated or the content was removed, you get 100% refunded. End of story. Any TOS to the contrary are invalid.

How much should that digital content cost then? Make a DVD once, never think about it again. To offer digital copy that loses no value over time and must be available forever seems like a bad deal from the publisher's side.

To offer a one time download code seems far more tenable.

Re: Apple sued for terminating account with $25k worth of apps and videos

#150

Post by easton »

freebuju wrote: post #92
DigitallyFidget wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon argues the same exact thing if you buy a movie digitally from them. It's only available to you for as long as they host it on their servers. This is why I pirate shit that I can't find on Netflix or Prime Video. Buying digital content is merely "long term rental" and really needs to be better advertised as that.

> This is why I pirate shit I stopped seeing any value in purchasing/renting rights to movies and shows from the streaming giants. Want to watch The Office, sorry removed, no longer on Netflix. Oh, you are in a country that has a funny name, content not available in your region. Oh, you are trying to access your Hulu subscription from a Linux device? Max video res capped at 480p. It is such anti-consumer moves that m…

If it makes you feel better, Hulu is capped at 480p outside of Edge or Chrome on Windows, and Safari on the Mac.
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