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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ @lemmy.dbzer0.com

1y ago

Sony is going to remove certain purchased titles from user libraries

www.playstation.com Discovery Entitlements Affected Titles

As always, the paying user has the worst experience. "Purchase" a show, can only watch on a certain console of a certain brand, no transfers, no backups, then it suddenly disappears from the library and nothing can be done.

If media companies insist on draconian DRM, then they should pay for full refunds to their loyal customers when one day they decide to delist that specific show.

Tecnologia @lemmy.eco.br

abobla @lemm.ee

1y ago

Sony removerá conteúdo pago da conta dos usuários da playstation no final deste ano

www.playstation.com /en-us/legal/psvideocontent/

1 0

104 comments

if buying isn't owning piracy isn't stealing
- I wish u could retweet a lemmy comment. Well said.
  
  technically you can since lemmy, kbin, and mastodon all use activitypub :P
  
  welcome to the fediverse. Boost = retweet ;)
  
  You can on /kbin
- Fairer words have never been spoken

- Cool tattoo idea!

Absolutely insane.
I can understand extreme cases, like some sort of disputed IP where their contact to sell the content turns out not to be with the actual rights holder, resulting in no longer serving the content (with an unconditional full refund). But past that they should be legally required to host the content until the heat death of the universe.
- Give it another 10 years, you won’t “own” anything. It’ll be “licensed.” Weird tho. Digital content is endless. But you can’t consume it into extinction; physical things are finite, but we’re like here take it! It’s yours! Call a cop or shoot anyone trying to take it.
  Seems backwards to me.

"As always, the paying user has the worst experience."
So true.

"We sincerely thank you for your continued support."
As in stfu and keep giving us money?
- Looks perfectly translated to me

And this is why I never “buy” media online. If I can’t own the media and enjoy the content whenever and wherever I want, it’s rented. I may be ok with that, but I never let them claim that it was a sale.
- Buy it for the convenience and for the good Devs, pirate it after if they try taking it away. You already paid for it
  
  Exactly.
  It's much the same as creators in Second Life who don't want to sell in the Opensim metaverse. I get where they're coming from in terms of protecting a recurring revenue stream, but if the customer has already paid for the product once, under first sale doctrine, they have the right to continue using it.
  
  Slap one pirating at the front if it's a game with no demo.

Now THAT is stealing.

Alright, what this looks like is Sony's deal with Discovery to sell and host their TV shows has been removed. From my quick glance there are no games being removed.
Still is BS, and beyond ridiculous. But it was inevitably going to happen at some point.
I am more pissed that I got informed that they are doing this from here instead of being told that I am losing my Myth Busters.
- But it was inevitably going to happen at some point.
  If you believed this, wtf would you ever give them your money to begin with???
  
  Because it was 2009, I was I kid, and I saw Mythbusters and I said yes. I learnt my lesson when they remove PlayStation Video years ago from PS3, and the PSP. I didn't even know I could re-download it until I stumbled upon it in a menu years later.
  I am just hoping and praying that this will not extend to their games. Sony's been pretty good about game ownership to this point, look at those who bought the PT Demo and can still play it.

Like.... They're straight up taking it back? No refunding? That is so asinine.
- "We sincerely thank you for your continued support."
  Not only are they not refunding, They seem to think you might purchase something else from them in the future.
  
  Even Google was giving people full refunds for all games that were bought on Stadia when they gave up on that. I can't imagine that the total refunds would even be that bad for Sony given the increases they made for PSN prices. Would at least come across as at least pretending to "do right" to keep some level of trust from the people that have been buying non-game media from them. It would all be just a PR thing with some loss of current money for future money. Maybe even just offer a free amount of credit for getting some shows/movies from the Sony owned studios.
  But since Sony is currently the number one, they will keep on their fuck shit until Microsoft or Nintendo are able to pull some big push. Playstation really only does kind of cool shit for customers when they aren't in the lead.
  
  And idiots will do it, too.
  
  Because most people will still continue to buy things.
- You can bet Australian users will be entitled to a refund, should they be affected.
  Similar to how "no refunds" didn't fly with steam in cases where people are entitled to a refund under Australian Consumer Law.

"But you only ever owned a usage-license, which we now suspended" strawman argument incoming.
Well duh, then i don't have "buyed" but rented it. Usage of those terms by platforms should be sued as misleading.
- I look forward to the class action suit, and the $14 check I'll get in the mail.

Modern consoles are a scam.
- Yeah, I stopped buying'em when they started charging for 2nd internet.
  Fucking rubes ruin everything I swear lol.
- I still like having a console strictly for games, but not for media stuff. Plus since it’s an Xbox, you can subscribe to Game Pass and treat every game as a rental.
  That doesn’t do anything to help game preservation though, which sucks. But between the sheer volume of games and the “every game is a rental” attitude, I treat new games as a one-time experience that I probably won’t care about returning to.
  Fortunately though, the games I care most about having access to forever are easily backed up and can be played with an emulator if necessary.

That's one reason why Piracy will always exist, am I right?
- It’s why it must exist.

Fucking assholes. This is why piracy is justifiable, and in some cases, even necessary.

God, I hope these bastards get sued 'cause little doubt they won't be refunding the poor schmos who've just been robbed of their property.
- I'm sure they covered this in the terms of service that they know no one ever reads.
  
  In many countries that wont work. The Terms of service need to only include reasonable and expectable clauses, as they are not negotionable.
  And "purchase doesnt mean ownership, we take it from you anytime we want" is neither reasonable nor expectable.
  Also this should run under criminal fraud imo. The customers were deliberately deceived by the term "purchase" into believing they would be granted ownership.
- To be fair, Sony might go for that. This is incredibly embarrassing for them as well, and it does erode the trust in their service which is really important for a marketplace like this. Sony will be handing out coupons probably, but this is still damage to their brand.

This won't change until someone sells a yacht to a Senator with fine print that it's only a perpetual license. Then comes back 3 years later and takes the yacht citing the fine print in the contract.

If I’m to believe I own the crap I buy that’s digital delivery, then if they want to take it back, they need to buy it from me at my price.

Discovery Entitlements Affected Titles
As of 31 December 2023, due to our content licensing arrangements with content providers, you will no longer be able to watch any of your previously purchased Discovery content and the content will be removed from your video library.
We sincerely thank you for your continued support.
Thank you,
PlayStation Store
- Turns out you people didn't actually purchase it.
  I wonder if anywhere in the "purchase" terms they included "while Sony holds the license to distribute."
  I hate that "purchases" people make are restricted per platform. If I "purchase" a specific title it should be available on any and all platforms that serve that content. No one should be asked to purchase it on Sony. Apple, Netflix, Amazon, or whatever other shitty streaming service comes out.
  As much as I think nfts are fucking retarded, this could be one of the few cases where that stupid digital receipt might make sense.
  
  Y’arr Matey🏴‍☠️
  
  My understanding was this was the actual intended use case for NFTs. To allow you to properly own a digital item. The fact that it got applied to a stupid fad right out the gate doesn't change the fact that it should actually be used to allow us to own things again.
- LOL

If I purchased it, do I get store credit for losing what I bought?
- That's funny. You should do stand-up
- Yes, but since it's "used", you get .1 percent what you paid for it.
  
  It loses 70% of it's value as soon as you ~~drive~~ watch it off the lot
- lol

I think when this happens you DO get a refund, (usually a coupon for the same service, but still). This is a situation where villanizing Sony would be, but not necessarily correct. Obviously they have no interest to remove previously purchased content from user libraries. (like this).
So the question is, on what possible grounds can a company change licensing AFTER sales have been made. This is the same fucking mess as with the soundtrack being retroactively removed from GTAIV. How is this legal?
- A coupon for the same service is not and does not resemble a refund.
  Yes, villainizing them is entirely correct. If they sold the license 100 years ago and stopped providing it, they should be legally liable for a 100% refund of the purchase price, plus interest. If they fucked up their contracts in a manner in which they aren't able to serve the content to purchasers until the end of the time, it's entirely their own problem.
  
  When companies fight regulations they use statements THIS unreasonable to fight better legislation, for framing everyone who supports better regulation, as completely unreasonable whining anti capitalistic bigots, who just want regulation that makes conducting any business basically impossible.
  With this logic, if your DVD rots, does the company who originally released the DVD owe you a full refund plus interest?

just got my multi season science fiction show downloaded via the salty seas. apparantly it would cost $50-85 to download or stream from the "legit" vendor. A vendor that bought the rights and closed the ability to access previous seasons. So, not going well for the loyal customers.

almost like "purchasing" it was the real crime.

That list of shows that's being removed is huge too.
God I hope people reconsider purchasing products from companies that do these kind of things to them.
At some point you think if they get smacked up the side of their heads enough times that they will actually wake up and do something about it.

This is why i hate digital only and no more game disc, also battlepass and dlc.
you own nothing but pays the full price for the permission to play and they cant remove access at any time.-
Marvel vs capcom 2 its my favorite game and they removed from store, i know is about licensing but they will not come to my house for the DVD Disc right?

That's 1318 items, according to that table, counting by seasons. Insane.

Whoever wrote that list probably isn't being paid enough.

Scrolling through the list I can't believe that people actually watch that shit, let alone pay for it.
It's all the kind of crap that people leave used to leave on in the background and to get bombarded with 4 sets of adverts an hour. The direct result of needing to fill 200 channels as cheaply as possible.
Refunding everyone would probably cost Sony less than a million. I'd wager some of those shows nobody has ever purchased.
- You don't like it which is fine but no need to call out people who do. My dad loves deadliest catch and has been watching it for years, he records it and then fast forwards through the ad breaks something that's been around 10 years now.
- Deadly Dentists didn't get good until season 2 anyway.

sony is going to steal

Some series have a weird pattern of deletion.
LA Ink | Season 1
LA Ink | Season 6
LA Ink | Season 7
Lolwut. Does it mean 2-5 are still availiable or they never were?
It's all Discovery Channel's properties, and it's a good day to rewatch their classics and seed them.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but Sony kind of has their hands tied on this one. The shows they’re delisting (or are not able to relicense) kind of get to take their IP off of the system, no?
- I imagine that is the case, however they could refund it given the situation.
  I get the feeling they won't allow refunds.
  
  True, but I doubt any giant corp entity would do refunds in this day and age.
  Not defending Sony, just saying this is SOP, as shitty as it is.
- If they didn't have a licence to host it in perpetuity, they shouldn't have sold it in the first place.
  Yes, they should pull it if they legally have to. That's following the law. However, they should refund consumers in full or ensure that they continue to have the media without restrictions.
  
  More than refund should be legally due. The cost to repurchase the product is what is due.

This has actually always been my reason for piracy. I've always been able to afford games, thankfully, so I've used piracy as a means of demoing games as demos became more and more rare and more commonly and more importantly I've used piracy as a means of preserving games. I have no problems paying for a game if I can also keep it indefinitely and play it forever, and thanks to piracy that is actually possible.

Did anyone actually read the link? Everyone in the thread is talking like they pulled video games. They literally only pulled Disney TV content from like 20 years ago. Now of course that's still crappy but stuff like this has happened for TV content before and it won't be the last time this happens.
We can freak out when they actually do this to video games and not some 20 year old awful reality TV content no one watched anyway.
- Nobody is mentioning TV Show vs video game because there is no difference.
  Taking away any content a user has paid for is unacceptable without a full refund at absolute minimum.
- The point is if they do it for this there is no reason they wouldn't do it to other forms of media. Youre either introducing a strawman argument or missing the point

On the one hand, I sympathize with anyone losing access to How It's Made and Mythbusters. But for everything else on that list, that money was already thrown away for no good reason. I'd like to hope the audiences were small or non-existent to begin with.
Sony is doing the world a favor by purging most of that garbage from their service, to be perfectly honest.

104 comments