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Merge of Discovery and Warner Bros. renders PlayStation licensing agreement worthless. (Up: new licensing agreement, shows will not be removed)

YCoCg

Gold Member
Yup. If this is legal they need to call it "rent" or "subscription", not "purchase". Very misleading. There's bound to be some legal action soon.
I believe this is how they already do it, you "Buy" it but if you read the T&Cs it states that you're merely buying a leased license for the product which can be revoked at any time should the companies involved see fit to do so. Most are OK witr just letting you keep it but this is Discovery and they want that sweet sweet tax write off.
 
I also saw that netflix deleted some movies and shows of their platform and those were Netflix original content, physical and piracy are the way to go. I have also seen that Microsoft and apple have removed purchased movies from the accounts with microsoft not offering any refund for that.
 
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PSYGN

Member
I believe this is how they already do it, you "Buy" it but if you read the T&Cs it states that you're merely buying a leased license for the product which can be revoked at any time should the companies involved see fit to do so. Most are OK witr just letting you keep it but this is Discovery and they want that sweet sweet tax write off.
I understand that, I don't know if you're arguing that what they are doing is fine because read the fine print?

When you "Buy" or "Purchase" something you typically own it in the end. That's how most would interpret it. I guess at this rate Rent-a-center should be called Buy-a-center, but don't forget to read the fine print because you're purchasing the rental agreement and not the item! Get that nonsense out of here. Stipulations like that shouldn't be hidden in T&C. It's like the tech world likes to live by its own rules because "digital" "licencing" hand wavy-ness.
 
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sachos

Member
I wonder when the first purchased game will get deleted. It'll be a bloodbath.
I guess for games an equivalent would be when the servers closes for a game with online required singleplayer component, like Crossfire X. I remember there was a post about it here.
 

StereoVsn

Gold Member
4K blu ray should be the future for owning movies. Not only is the quality better but it’s yours forever if you take care of it. Digital is fine for streaming rented movies but you don’t truly own your purchased films.

Many more people have access now to 4k blu ray players now that the PS5 and Series X have them built in. I encourage everyone to buy their treasured and favourite films on 4k blu ray. The experience is better and you actually own and can watch it anytime with or without the internet. And none of these corporations can take it from you.
Yep, that’s what I do with new and old movies that I like and expect I would rewatch.

Basically there is no trust of platform or content holders. Now, I have bought decent amount of movies from Amazon, Apple, Vudu and so on when it’s really cheap like $3-5. Mostly for stuff I would rent. I still get UHD for anything long term.

Also, folks, you can buy UHD used, generally they come in a decent shape. eBay, Amazon, etc…
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future

Read the update, they only removed the multiplayer portion because the servers were dead.
Yeah I am still able to download Outrun:Coast 2 Coast even though it hasn't been available to purchase for a long time.
Even for multiplayer stuff they should leave it - never know if a SupCom FaF like community will resurrect them.
 

Isa

Member
This is why I've recently starting collecting physical where I can, both for games, books, movies and shows. Just these past two or three weeks I've spent like 10k lol getting stuff before they go OOP. Especially with film its tough since prints are often limited and often to a certain time period. So prices skyrocket. Its honestly been pretty great building up a big collection again, and my girl loves it since she's always been about physical and not "giving away my stuff" *ahem* trading or selling for anything less than I paid lol(mainly referring to my old game store days). A few collections I've bought have already jumped up in price raising the value exponentially(movies & books) which is nice. A few are out of my league save for piracy but I prefer not to go that route and many things are no longer or never were available that way. Plus all the malware and viruses present and far fewer decent sites.

I used to be near purely digital for roughly a decade, since the PS4 and late PS3 but lately I've really begun to break that habit. I bet in the rough future if things don't change, there will be a new market especially with entertainment going the way it has for so long.

I do hope this get's resolved for those who've been affected by this though, as it really is rife for litigation but there is probably a ton of safety nets for the corpos in the fine print of user agreements.
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
I wonder when the first purchased game will get deleted. It'll be a bloodbath.
I consider it already having happened with Destiny 2 campaigns. I bought a collection of 3 of them and now none are accessible. Never trusting Bungie again.
 

SScorpio

Member
You do realize if these media were on Microsoft's service they would be pulled from their as well?
Get off Microsoft's dick, it's not good for you.
I don't remember the reason, but Microsoft did remove movies people purchased at one point. The difference is Microsoft issued a full refund of the purchase price, even though many were made several years before the removal.
 

graywolf323

Member
I consider it already having happened with Destiny 2 campaigns. I bought a collection of 3 of them and now none are accessible. Never trusting Bungie again.
wait, what? I heard about Destiny 2 vaulting stuff but actual campaigns? 🤨
 
I don't remember the reason, but Microsoft did remove movies people purchased at one point. The difference is Microsoft issued a full refund of the purchase price, even though many were made several years before the removal.
It wouldn't shock me if sony were getting the legal team to let them know how to handle this since this is warner/zaslav doing this.
 
Bullshit. They could have not sold this trash in the first place or at least enter into an agreement that has their consumers best interests in mind.
You have no idea what you're talking about.
Microsoft has literally done the exact same shit in the past.
It's on warner. Get over it.
 
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You have no idea what you're talking about.
Microsoft has literally done the exact same shit in the past.
It's on warner. Get over it.
Nope. It's you who doesn't know what they're talking about. This isn't on Warner. This is the deal that was offered to Sony and other distributors and Sony took it knowing full well that consumers will be screwed over in the long run. MS doing something doesn't absolve Sony's involvement in this anti-consumer behaviour and should be called out. Personally, I'm all digital myself for the convenience but yet I don't have a horse in this race. I'm just calling out blatant disregard for consumer rights when I see it.
 
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CatLady

Selfishly plays on Xbox Purr-ies X
You have no idea what you're talking about.
Microsoft has literally done the exact same shit in the past.
It's on warner. Get over it.
One BIG difference:
I don't remember the reason, but Microsoft did remove movies people purchased at one point. The difference is Microsoft issued a full refund of the purchase price, even though many were made several years before the removal.
 
Nope. It's you who doesn't know what they're talking about. This isn't on Warner. This is the deal that was offered to Sony and other distributors and Sony took it knowing full well that consumers will be screwed over in the long run. MS doing something doesn't absolve Sony's involvement in this anti-consumer behaviour and should be called out. Personally, I'm all digital myself for the convenience but yet I don't have a horse in this race. I'm just calling out blatant disregard for consumer rights when I see it.
Wrong, wrong and wrong.
It's on Warner period.
 
Wrong, wrong and wrong.
It's on Warner period.
Believe what you want to believe, but just know that I know you're wrong. End users don't give two shits who the rights holders are or who are the production company or any of that crap. They gave the money to Sony and that is who is to blame - Sony for selling this crap in the first place. I'm not saying Warner aren't at fault here; almost all corporations are as scummy as the last... but Sony could have chosen to not sell this stuff on their store front (which they have full control over).
 

Ozzie666

Member
Someone should be offering refunds, partial refunds, extras or something. There also needs to be clear timelines for how long you 'own/rent' something. This is the digital future people wanted, play stupid games, win stupid prizes. TV/Movies, not worth it. We obviously need more regulation across the industry and subscriptions.

It reminds me of those solar panel companies that offer these amazingf 25-30 year warranties. Guess what, none of them survive more than 7 years before they change their company name and start again. All those warranties vanish.

The must have been a very courageous moment for Zaslav, if it's indeed Warner's fault. what s shit greedy company.
 
Yup. If this is legal they need to call it "rent" or "subscription", not "purchase". Very misleading. There's bound to be some legal action soon.
People who want to own their consumables better continue buying physical stuff.
I just want to play games and don't expect everything to stay accessible forever, kinda view it as a one time ticket, that offers rewatches as a bonus, so I dont care much if I lose games I paid little money for. But anyone collecting day one games, might lose some expensive to build library some day in the future.

It absolutely needs to be called something else:
unlock access*
*may end any time

Alternatively the platforms need to be required to make unlimited agreements with the license holders that any past purchase cannot be retroactively revoked, so turning a buy into an actual buy and some requirement by law to host the files for at least x years past the latest possible purchase date too. (and also server closures to happen earliest x months after final purchase date)

Law seems to be not really adapted to properly take care of digital goods.
 

Deerock71

Member
I witnessed it, Saturn JP games that are very old became unreadable and there are signs of rot. Happens also on tape games like old C64 games.
It's not the same thing as a company pulling access to licences you've purchased from them for [REASONS], but yes manmade shit is faulty. Finally...a universal truth emerges.
 

DosGamer

Member
Most of us are now walking the earth, living our lives leaving behind us a trail of digital trash. This has me thinking of all the digital items I have purchased over the years that I have already lost.

Pics, songs, game items, games, etc..... Its really a shame there isnt something that can truly store everything we have. I know some will say the cloud, but it would be cool to have a device that links everything we buy digitally across the whole web.
 

Evil Calvin

Afraid of Boobs
I wonder when the first purchased game will get deleted. It'll be a bloodbath.
I've lost a lot of Iphone games I've purchased since 2010. After I switched phones a couple times and went into my purchases, many are greyed out and it says 'will not work with your version of IOS. Developer has not updated game for current IOS' (or something to that effect. If you update and the dev didn't....then you are SOL if you want to install it later. For example...I had Doom RPG and Wolfenstein RPG and paid for them. Won't let me download them.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Have fun reading about the denied refunds
Friday Movie GIF
 

SenkiDala

Member
It's not the same thing as a company pulling access to licences you've purchased from them for [REASONS], but yes manmade shit is faulty. Finally...a universal truth emerges.
I totally agree and this is unacceptable. Sony should manage the situation and at the BARE MINIMUM, let's say the share between Sony and Discovery is 30/70%, and for exemple someone spent 100$ of Discovery stuff, Sony should refund the 30% share that they got so in that case 30$. How is it possible that in our society a company can literally STEAL content from you, and not get punished at all. And even Discovery I dunno how they can sell content, remove from you the possibility to redownload it and that's just ok.

Thinking also that Sony has this trial in UK that can lead them to refund 6 billions $ of content to customers... That exact situation with Discovery won't help them at all to defend themselves.

And in dunno about in USA (I just come here and not other US websites) but in Europe / France NOBODY talks about it, nobody gives a fuck, just vaguely mention it as if it was just a detail, if it was Microsoft it would be headlines of any VG website.
 
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