I've been saying it for a while now: you never truly own something that is purely digital. We have been sliding into a culture of renting for many years. Now Jon Porter at The Verge has a scoop about Sony's PlayStation store removing PURCHASED movies from people's libraries.
The shutdown will come into force on August 31st, exactly one year after Sony discontinued movie and TV show purchases through its digital store. At the time Sony said that its customers will still be able to access previously purchased content. Notices posted on the PlayStation website blame “evolving license agreements with content providers” (via machine translation) for the change, and say that purchased content will be removed from customers’ video libraries.
The Verge
Talk about a smack in the face. Even in a world where subscriptions are everywhere, there are many who want to own their media. That is getting more and more difficult. The dirty little secret is this: you're not buying that movie (or video game or TV show). You're buying a license for that content and it's one that can be revoked or altered at any time.
This move by Sony, which stinks of damage control with their finger-pointing, is yet another example of why I wrote about Data Hoarders. There is a growing contingent of people who simply want to watch something without signing up for another service. They also want to watch something they paid for at any time.
It's astounding to me that my Back to the Future VHS set from 1992 can still play no problem (if I can find a VCR) but my 4K digital copies could be rendered unplayable at the flip of a switch tomorrow.