Apple can delete purchased movies from your library without telling you

guest · Sep 13, 2018

Apple can delete purchased movies from your library without telling you
Turns out cloud storage is not all it’s cracked up to be.
September 12, 2018
https://theoutline.com/post/6167/apple-can-delete-the-movies-you-purchased-without-telling-you

When you buy a movie on iTunes, it’s yours forever, until such a time as when Apple maybe loses the rights to distribute it, and then it will disappear from your library without a trace. This is what happened to Anders G. da Silva, who goes by @drandersgs on Twitter, and who tweeted about losing three movies bought on the iTunes Store.

To be completely fair, the iTunes Store’s Terms of Service, which surely no one has ever read, do address this kind of incident. Years ago, Apple began offering “cloud storage” for content purchased from its store, meaning that if a user deleted the content from any device, it could be re-downloaded to that same device, or a different authorized device, later.

[...] “Content may not be available for Redownload if that Content is no longer offered on our Services.” For reasons that are easy to guess, Apple has never widely advertised that, by deleting locally stored content, users are actually rolling the dice as to whether they will ever be able to get it back.
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Mrkvonic · Sep 13, 2018

So the title does not quite align with the story.
If you buy something, you can't expect the seller to keep a copy of that forever.
If it's yours, then it's yours, keep it.
Mrk

xxJackxx · Sep 13, 2018

This is why I buy DVDs.

Minimalist · Sep 13, 2018

As long as they don't delete a copy from your device, I don't see this as a problem.

guest · Sep 16, 2018

No, Apple didn't delete that guy's movies. Here's what really happened
Analysis: Digital purchases are more ephemeral than physical copies, but switching iTunes "regions" seems to be the culprit here.
September 15, 2018
https://www.cnet.com/news/no-apple-didnt-delete-that-guys-movies-heres-what-really-happened/

"Apple's 'buy' button is a sham, because Apple has the right to remove movies from your iTunes library after you've bought them. If Disney decides it no longer wants to offer a particular movie in your country, your 'purchase' is no better than an extended rental. Only Blu-rays and DVDs are safe."

Here's the thing: Some of that may be true. But the story about disappearing digital copies isn't. Or, at the very least, it's a lot more complicated than that.

It seems to have been a more complicated mix-up, based on the fact that da Silva moved his residence from one country to another. Most importantly: Apple tells CNET that it won't delete your movies, either. At least, not ones you've downloaded.
Two possible culprits
More likely, the phrase "if the version you purchased isn't also available" speaks volumes about what actually happened here.
[...] when someone has legitimately moved from one region to another, as Dr. da Silva has, [...] movies may still be stored in da Silva's Australian account -- but he can't easily switch back to the Australian region to download them again. [...]
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guest · Sep 19, 2018

It’s Always DRM’s Fault
September 18, 2018
https://www.publicknowledge.org/news-blog/blogs/its-always-drms-fault

To that rare breed of person who carefully reads terms of service and keeps multiple, meticulous backups of important files, da Silva should have expected that his ability to access movies he thought he'd purchased might be cut off because he'd moved from one Commonwealth country to another. Just keep playing your original file! But DRM makes this an unreasonable demand.

First, files with DRM are subject to break at any time. [...] Second, even if they are still playable, files with DRM are not very portable, and they might not fit in with modern workflows.

In other words, even if you had carefully kept a backup of your iTunes purchase, and it still played in iTunes, actually watching your movie might at best involve dusting off some outdated and little-used software and at worst might not work at all.

My takeaway is that, if a seller of DRM'd digital media uses words like "purchase" and "buy," they have at a minimum an obligation to continue to provide additional downloads of that media, in perpetuity. Fine print aside, without that, people simply aren't getting what they think they're getting for their money, and words like "rent" and "borrow" are more appropriate.
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