Sony is Sony is about to delete Mythbusters, Naked and Afraid, and tons of other Discovery shows from PlayStation users’ libraries even if they already “purchased” them.

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.

  • TallonMetroid@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    2 years ago

    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.

    • ∟⊔⊤∦∣≶@lemmy.nzOP
      2·
      2 years ago

      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?

      • TallonMetroid@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        2 years ago

        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.