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Theft, by any other name

When I was a spotty-faced teenager, I'd spend a fair chunk of my pocket-money on buying music on cassette tape or long-play records.

It was a simple transaction; I would hand over a fist-full of dollars and the man behind the counter would hand me the physical media on which the music was recorded.

I could then take that cassette or LP away and play it on whatever bit of electronic audio equipment I chose.

Even better, once I'd listened to it a few times, I could swap what I'd just bought and paid for with friends and end up listening to other stuff at no extra expense (while they listened to my music).

They were simpler times and, I like to think, a lot more honest.

Of course back then (in the early 1970s), the concept of "owning" a copy of movie or TV series was not even on the horizon. We didn't have Bluray disks, DVDs or even VHS cassette recorders.

However, once video cassette recorders became commonplace, it became possible to buy your favourite movies and TV series on tape in the same way I'd bought my music a decade or two previous.

The arrival of the DVD really heralded in the era where people began to build their own small libraries of their favourite shows and films. Those disks weren't cheap but at least you got a disk and the right to watch it in perpetuity. Also, as with music, you could share your collection with friends and they with you.

Move on a few decades and we find ourselves in today's environment, an environment where physical media has all but died.

Today, if you want to buy a movie, there are plenty of online streaming services that will "sell" you a copy that can be accessed via their service. You don't need a disk or a tape because your movie or TV series is safely stored on their cloud servers waiting for the moment you decide to watch it.

Well that's the theory but, in practice, it seems to be failing.

For the second time now, we've seen the definition of "purchase" and "own" totally redefined on the fly by a tech company.

I'm talking about Sony and their Playstation Network.

Playstation users have been able to purchase digital copies of popular movies and TV series for use on their PlayStation hardware via the Network. The promise was that you pay once and you can watch as often as you like. It was sold on the basis that it's just like buying a DVD or Bluray disk but with the convenience that you don't need a separate player or the hassle of storing physical media.

However, lots of PlayStation users are fuming right now -- because suddenly Sony has turned around and effectively said:

It strikes me that this is theft.

Imagine if you went into your favourite book shop and spent hundreds, perhaps thousands of dollars on your favourite tomes -- only to discover one day that your bookshelves had been raided and that the books you thought you'd bought and paid for had been reposessed without any compensation.

I think you'd be calling the police... right?

Well sadly, it appears that Playstation owners have no recourse in law, even though they've just had hundreds or possibly thousands of dollars worth of movies they thought they had purchased stolen from them by Sony.

It's all legal (apparently) because buried deep in the "Terms of Service", Sony redefined the meaning of "purchase" to exclude the concept of ownership and replace it with a license that could be revoked at any time -- without compensation.

This sucks but, at least to me, is not unexpected. This has happened before, in 2023, when Sony did the same thing and it appeared that some folk, many of who are now out of pocket, weren't paying attention.

In my opinion, anyone who "purchases" a movie from one of these streaming companies and relies on a digital copy stored in the cloud is braindead. My own personal collection of DVDs and Bluray disks fills several bookcases and much of it has been ripped to hard-disk so that it's instantly accessible via a few keystrokes. Anyone copyright owner that decides they want to revoke my rights to this content will have a pretty significant physical fight on their hands if they try to break down my door and revoke my license to watch that stuff.

People laughed when I took advantage of the shut-down of DVD rental stores to buy lots of very, very cheap ($1 a disk) DVDs containing a multitude of different movies and TV series.

Who's laughing now eh? :-)

Carpe Diem folks!

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