4 ms·
I don't understand why this isn't bigger news. This is as much theft as if they broke into your house and stole your DVDs.
by causi 4y ago
I don't understand why this isn't bigger news. This is as much theft as if they broke into your house and stole your DVDs.
- daenz 4y agoMy theory is that companies that jumped into the cloud content space didn't really think out long term what it means. It means hosting the purchased content forever, or providing a digital download for it if you no longer wish to host it.
- Filligree 4y agoEvidently, that's not what it means. It means hosting it until you don't feel like doing so anymore.
- daenz 4y agoYes they are testing the boundaries, and I think they will be surprised to see the amount of pushback, bad PR, and probably legal action that they get when people can no longer access the content that they purchased.
- amelius 4y agoExcept there probably is some EULA.
- justusthane 4y agoSure, there probably is. But if you bought a smartlock and the EULA had fine print buried in it saying "Usage of this lock grants consent for us to enter your home and steal your DVDs" that wouldn't fly. Obviously that's a silly example, but my point is just because something is in a EULA doesn't make it legal, and even if it legal, maybe it shouldn't be.
- SilasX 4y agoRight. Similarly I don't think courts like enforcing contracts that effectively say, "we can arbitrarily renege on our end and still keep your money". (Not a lawyer, not legal advice, hope someone with more knowledge chimes in.)
- wongarsu 4y agoThat has approximately zero legal value in Germany. The only enforceable terms would be terms the customer expects to be in there.
- bjt2n3904 4y agoI am fairly confident that when you signed up, you agreed to a terms of service that said something to the extent of, "You don't own these things you buy, we do, and we reserve the right to take them away without notice and without reason."
- 2Gkashmiri 4y agoyou dont "own" stuff, they "grant you a license", those fuckers
- ryukafalz 4y agoThen the button should say “License” and not “Buy” or “Purchase”.
- quickthrowman 4y agoI agree with your sentiment, but you can buy or purchase a license, unfortunately. I skip these licensing games and pirate video content. I pay for music and video games (not Ubisoft) because those industries have made it just as easy as piracy as well as reasonably affordable.
- InitialLastName 4y agoSomeone has never had Valve disappear a game they paid for from their Steam library.
- ryukafalz 4y agoSure you can, but if you asked the average person on the street what they thought they were buying when they clicked that button, the response you’d get is “the movie”, not “a license to watch the movie”.
- izacus 4y agoAnd what kind of meaningful difference would it make when all the buttons in all the stores (including ones selling physical media) would say "License Now"?
- Joeri 4y agoThis has happened again and again on lots of platforms. I’ve had this happen when microsoft shut down their ebook store, and when an album disappeared from my itunes account and apple support shrugged at me. Generally the way I view it: if drm is involved, purchase does not mean purchase, it means rent for an unknown time period. I judge prices for digital content accordingly. If drm is not involved you are always on the hook for your own backups.