So, if you bought a DVD licensed by Sony, can they now legally enter your house and take your DVD?
Or can Sony have some sort of DRM that prevents the DVD from playing when Sony loses the license agreement?
I’m just trying to reconcile how digital purchases can be subject to license terms changes, while a DVD apparently can’t be.
So, if you bought a DVD licensed by Sony, can they now legally enter your house and take your DVD?
No. You fully own the DVD. However if there are any features that are live based they have full rights to deactivate those. You can (grey area) legally make a backup copy of said disc. However, it’s also (grey area) not legal to break encryption (which almost every disc has) to make said copy, so catch 22. (Someone I’m sure will correct me if I’m wrong). But since it’s for personal use they haven’t really pressured that.
There is no “license” with a DVD. You bought it, you own it. It’s just the law that you can’t make copies, sell or distribute them, or I believe show it to your neighborhood. (Legally I don’t even think a bbq movie night with more than 5 people watching is okay, which is why Microsoft reeeeally loved the whole kinect camera watching you)
Sidenote, this post makes me so sad. People have become so accustomed to renting everything we have to explain what owning things was like. “What, you mean you could just have it? And they couldn’t come take it away?”
Legally, you own a disc, and a limited license to view the contents of the disc.
It’s effectively full ownership, but this same “limited license” model is how they fuck you over digitally, because without the disc, they can, at any time, revoke that limited license legally, because it was limited and they never granted full ownership. This is why the legality of pirating a movie you already own on Blu-ray is morally correct but legally wrong, because your license only grants you that one disc, in that one format.
I fucking hate it. The fact we dont have better property laws for media and IP is insane.
This is what I was looking for, thanks for clarifying. For the last 10 years my friends thought I was insane for continuing to purchase physical media. No more.
OP I should also say there are some fan edits of Mythbusters out there that are frankly amazing. None of that “recap” stuff after every break, they don’t jump around. If you stumble on those they are well worth it
Oh dam that sounds watchable!! I shall keep my eye-patch raised…
They used to be on Reddit and were called smyths or something similar.
With the obvious caveat that IANAL, I think there’s a distinction to be made between the physical medium that an IP is distributed on, if any, and the IP itself. Like, when you buy a movie on DVD you obviously don’t own the IP. But strictly speaking, you don’t even own that particular copy of the movie as encoded on the disc you bought. But you do own the disc itself, which just happens to have a copy of the movie on it. So while a publisher can always pull their IPs, and make it illegal for people to distribute them, they can’t come and take the discs that you already legally own.
That makes sense, but then the next part is:
Or can Sony have some sort of DRM that prevents the DVD from playing when Sony loses the license agreement?
Surely that would still be a possibility?
I mean, sure. That’s basically how always-online DRM for games works. But the fact is that you do still have the disc with data on it, so generally it’s just a matter of time before someone comes up with a way to bypass or spoof the DRM.
People still own the clothes, I always explain in terms of clothing, it’s like Sony following you in a playground and take your pants away because you never owned them.
There is no “license” with a DVD.
But Sony had a license to produce and sell that DVD, right?
Media is treated more like drugs. A license to own rights, produce, distribute, and physically possess are all different licenses.
if there are any features that are live based they have full rights to deactivate those
Didn’t know this one…
You don’t own digital media for the most part. When you ‘buy’ a movie digitally you’re simply purchasing a license to stream that movie at home.
Sony can’t go into your home and take your DVD. Sony can sign a contract with the IP holders of Mythbusters that allow them to sell licenses for it. The contract that Sony and the IP holder make can stipulate that they can’t stream it to anyone who had previously paid for it after X amount of years if they don’t renew their contract.
When you buy that Mythbusters license from Sony in the TOS you’ll likely find that there’s likely text reflecting this reality.
TLDR: You’re not buying the movie you’re buying a license to stream that movie from Sony so long as they have a deal with the IP holder.
I reject your reality and substitute my own.
I think this view in my Lemmy timeline neatly explains it…
I think OP specifically references it in the post
Sony doesn’t sell media on the playstation store, only licenses to access their media.
The sad part is when piracy makes a superior product.
It has done for many years
To side with the other side for a bit, does Sony own the content being removed or is merely its distributor?
If the contract is over and they no longer have the legal right to maintain and share that content on their servers, them perhaps they are not to blame for being required to remove said content.
Evem so, them deleting it from individually owned consoles should raise a flag on what it is console owners actually own of their consoles.If they delete a users ability to use something they paid for, you can still absolutely blame Sony, unless it comes with a refund
If their contract with the rights-holder says they are only authorized to distribute the video for N years, then you can’t blame them for uploading their contractual obligations.
Like, enshittification is a problem but let’s aim our pitchforks at the right target
There isn’t one, but the copyright cartel has conned almost everybody into thinking there is.
