You all remember just a few weeks ago when Sony ripped away a bunch of movies and TV shows people “owned”? This ad is on Amazon. You can’t “own” it on Prime. You can just access it until they lose the license. How can they get away with lying like this?

When you click “buy” or “purchase” on a video on Amazon Prime, you’re not actually coming into ownership of that movie of TV show. Instead, you’re merely paying for a limited license for “on-demand viewing over an indefinite period of time", as warned in the very small print on the company’s website.

GamesRadar

they can get away apparently because of this very small print.

yarr-har-fiddle-dee-dee/ if you love to sail the seeries of tubes

ares35
link
fedilink
88M

plenty of room on that ad to replace ‘own it now’ with ‘rent it until the studio deletes it or we quit paying for its rights’

yes. kinda sucks.

I believe there was a couple of attempts that tried to complain but got dismissed because the defense mentioned the complainant didn’t read the TOS.

Wait, you mean I don’t actually own Jason Momoa now? What about my kingdom, do I still own that? (It’s hard to tell, since it’s lost.)

You merely own a license that allows you to access Jason Momoa.

Chainweasel
link
fedilink
English
202
edit-2
8M

If they’re saying “own” on their advertisements then they should be required to refund you when they eventually have to take it away. I’m pretty sure “ownership” has a legal definition and it’s probably not too ambiguous.
It should at least be considered false advertising if they can’t guarantee access permanently.

Gormadt
link
fedilink
English
1388M

That’s the best part

They redefine “own” and “buy” in their TOS

And so do many many other online retailers that sell digital goods

@takeda@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
838M

I wonder if that would hold in court. They could simply use “rent” or “lease” in their ads, but they purposely are trying to mislead to imply permanence.

Or “watch”. That way they don’t have to make it obvious that their customers won’t own it but still don’t straight up lie.

Anything holds in court when you have more money than several small nations combined.

The people who can afford to fight this kind of court case have no interest in doing so.

Zoot
link
fedilink
English
18M

We should start a gofundme then to get the funds needed to afford such a fight. Id throw in 100$. Might take a few thousands of me, and a lot of time, but it should start somewhere.

Or join the EFF which already does great work in this area. They don’t always succeed, but I doubt a GoFundMe could do better.

The Menemen!
link
fedilink
English
188M

Don’t you have customer protection NGOs in the USA?

removed by mod

try google

@9point6@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
148M

I can’t believe you were able to ask that with a straight face

We have corporate protections in the USA.

Bakkoda
link
fedilink
English
128M

The consumer isn’t the last rung on the ladder. We’re on the fuckin ground. With footprints on our faces and medical bills to prove it.

Queen HawlSera
link
fedilink
English
-18M

I don’t even know what that stands for

NGO is non government organization

@TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee
link
fedilink
English
1
edit-2
8M

to give an actual answer instead of jaded teenage bullshit:

yes, we have several

Don’t expect any actual info from people around here. something tells me the comment section isn’t up for a fair analysis at where these things have failed us. it’ll be all soapbox, zero fact. I’m pretty baffled at how many people just told you No

@NightAuthor@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
1
edit-2
8M

Of that list, BBB is apparently more of a business extortion scene. But consumer reports seems cool, I’ve used their site a few times.

The rest, I’ve never heard of

Queen HawlSera
link
fedilink
English
4
edit-2
8M

Why would they endanger the ability to sell the same movie dozens of times over?

Who tf is going to buy Aquaman 2 dozens of times? What’s wrong with them?😭

@MonkderZweite@feddit.ch
link
fedilink
English
1
edit-2
8M

deleted by creator

@morrowind@lemmy.ml
link
fedilink
English
98M

They actually never mention the idea of you owning content in their tos https://www.primevideo.com/help?nodeId=202095490&view-type=content-only

It’s “purchased digital content”

(iii) purchase Digital Content for on-demand viewing over an indefinite period of time (“Purchased Digital Content”)

@Auli@lemmy.ca
link
fedilink
English
38M

Which is exactly like physical media. You never owned it you bought a license to view it on that particular disk. But it also had limitations put on it.

The Snark Urge
link
fedilink
English
38M

If license ownership rights with digital custodians were as good as they are with discs, there would be no conversation happening right now. The difference now is that custodians will occasionally snap a finger and disappear your stuff, and you have no recourse.

@anonymouse@lemmings.world
link
fedilink
English
1
edit-2
8M

It’s not “exactly like” physical media. The license portion is a similar concept. But the difference is that the variables that determine whether I can keep watching the content whenever I want, in perpetuity, lie solely with me as the person who physically possesses the media. The corporation from which I purchased the license can’t unilaterally decide to revoke my access to the content.

This is modern alchemy trying to turn lead into gold. Just change the meaning of the magic words et voilá you make gold while the other party is robbed blind and can’t do anything about it after the fact.

And of course, it’s totally legal and totally cool.

🍜 (she/her)
link
fedilink
English
38M

ok that makes me sick

BlanketsWithSmallpox
link
fedilink
English
218M

Then it’s not binding and they’re just waiting for the class action. Which will win, but they’ll still be richer in the end.

Oh, whoops. I read it as them explicitly telling me to pirate it. Yeah of course they aren’t going to let you actually own it. That doesn’t come close to making sense.

yeehaw
link
fedilink
English
18M

“rent a license for 15 years”

Refunding the sale price is still theft. If it was only worth that much to me (zero surplus), then I wouldn’t have bothered with the trade in the first place. The only things worth buying are worth more to you than the sale price.

@lud@lemm.ee
link
fedilink
English
-148M

Refunding the sale price is still theft.

What did you lose in this theft?

You got back everything you paid and you still got to enjoy the movie.

The way I see it you benefited from this transaction.

@Woht24@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
198M

A dollar today is worth more than a dollar in 1 year

@Aceticon@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
2
edit-2
8M

It’s called the Discounted Value Of Money in Finance.

As in, the future money returned by an investment is converted to today’s money by using a risk free investment - say US Treasuries - as baseline to convert that future money to today’s money.

Maybe an example helps: if I have a $1000 investment I can make today that returns $1050 in 2 years time, the way to check if it’s worth it and by how much is by comparing it with how much would $1000 put today in, for example, US Treasuries return in 2 years time and if it’s more than $1050 then that investment isn’t worth it because I could make more from those $1000 in 2 years with no risk.

You could say that the baseline, no-risk, future value of today’s money is how much it will turn into by that future time if I kept it in a risk free investment from today until then, and you can also do the operation in reverse, Discounting the Value Of Money in the Future to a Present Day value.

PS: There is also another concept which applies here which is to do with having your money lock-into something called Opportunity Cost. Simply it’s trying to have a value for the investment opportunities you might miss if you money is already lock-in for a certain time frame in something. Back in the example above, if those $1000 are put in our example investment for 2 years, they can’t be used if a better opportunity appear in the meanwhile.

This actually applies to regular people all the time: for example, if you don’t have time to play a game, why buy it now if you can instead buy it later when you do have time to play it, it might be cheaper and you even have the option to change your mind in the meanwhile and get something else you enjoy more with that game. Mind you, this is maybe an example more suitable for the Patient Gamers forum than for the Piracy one ;)

@lud@lemm.ee
link
fedilink
English
-38M

Yes but the movie will have lost its value over time so you could probably find it for much cheaper.

@Woht24@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
28M

But you’ve already spent your dollar… That only proves my point. Both the dollar and the media both decrease in value, for separate reasons.

possibly a cat
link
fedilink
English
8
edit-2
7M

deleted by creator

You lost the ability to enjoy it forever, and that’s what the language at time of sale said you’d have.

@lud@lemm.ee
link
fedilink
English
-38M

You buy it again then?

It’s probably much cheaper by the time it’s deleted anyways.

You’ve gone from asking what was lost to insisting that they took it in order to give us a discount.

@lud@lemm.ee
link
fedilink
English
18M

No, I just think that everyone here is over reacting like always

So you moved the goalposts?

Refunding the sale price is still theft.

What did you lose in this theft?

Is there really nothing in your home right now you would be sad if someone took and just gave you the money you paid for it?

Even a digital copy of a movie may not be so easy to replace on the services I have access to.

Stores are not allowed to go home to people and take back the stuff they sold, even if they refund the price. Neither should a company that advertise “pay this price and own this movie” rather than “pay this price and rent it for an indeterminate time”.

@lud@lemm.ee
link
fedilink
English
18M

Is there really nothing in your home right now you would be sad if someone took and just gave you the money you paid for it?

Well of course, but I wouldn’t care much about movies or media. Especially if the media is readily available elsewhere which is always the case for movies you “bought” digitally.

Especially if the media is readily available elsewhere which is always the case for movies you “bought” digitally.

Except when they aren’t. Especially if located outside the US, it is far from obvious that a given movie is available through another service.

@Jrockwar@feddit.uk
link
fedilink
English
238M

Oh I had never thought of this or come across this concept! That’s a really elegant concept. Of course, in a transaction you’re putting in more effort than the money. The time it takes you to go through the purchase, the research, the cost of opportunity of that money… meaning those have to be covered in the cost of the transaction, and therefore the goods must be cheaper than the perceived value by those amounts.

You’ve sent me down a rabbit hole and I thank you for that. Now I’m off to read about economics 🤓

“I am altering the deal, pray I do not alter it further”

@brax@sh.itjust.works
link
fedilink
English
98M

Probably intentional so they can change the definition of “own”

Are people really out here buying a media that can only be viewed through an app? If it’s not a file that can be downloaded and viewed elsewhere then I’m definitely not going for it… Who am I kidding? The seas have always been the life for me landlubbers!!

So you refund me if you take it away?

The full context of the quote is, while yes, the prospect of the complete elimination of private property is terrifying for some people (even socialists), the idea is that in the future, you won’t need to own anything and your life will be simpler and theoretically more fulfilling if we’re not preoccupied with owning things and keeping up with the Joneses.

Alien Nathan Edward
link
fedilink
English
88M

but you’ll notice that it doesn’t say “we’ll own nothing and be happy”. they’re not willing to take the medicine they prescribe for you. they’re part of the class that’s destined to own everything.

@neidu2@feddit.nl
link
fedilink
English
37
edit-2
8M

It should be noted that Amazon was among the first to prove that buying isn’t owning a few years ago when a book that many people had legally bought was automatically scrubbed feom devices. The title had been removed from the catalog, and any kindle which held it automatically removed it without the users concent, and they were given amazon store credit in return.

Johanno
link
fedilink
English
78M

This would be illegal in most EU countries.

ME5SENGER_24
link
fedilink
English
158M

This SHOULD be illegal in EVERY country.

When they say “Own it now” they mean own it through Amazon Prime. I don’t like it either but legally that is fine.

@GaMEChld@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
118M

You mean lease it? Rent it? Own implies it’s mine period. Not mine until they decide to remove it. A bank can’t take away your house cuz they feel like it after you’ve paid for it.

Well, technically they’re saying “own it now”, not “own it forever

Still, fuck amazon

Imagine a book store in which you pay for a book, then the book stays on the shelf in their shop, but they have in database that you can rent it whenever you want from them. How is this ownership?

@krimson@feddit.nl
link
fedilink
English
1188M

Did you click on it? Maybe it links to a torrent :D

I am on the belief that once I buy something, let’s say Spiderman No Way Home, on streaming services, I am entitled to download it offline from anywhere for my own Jellyfin.

No one, or even biggest corp, can change my view.

Miss Brainfarts
link
fedilink
English
188M

Downloading stuff like this for personal use is in fact perfectly legal in many countries

Chewy
link
fedilink
English
28M

In some countries making a private copy isn’t legal if copy protections are in place. Even if those copy protections are useless.

@Paddzr@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
48M

If only they allowed you to do it easily…

@Kamari@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
18M

Laughs in screen record

@Blackmist@feddit.uk
link
fedilink
English
68M

Well it is easy.

It’s just they don’t allow it.

One out of two ain’t bad.

Even if you don’t pay for it?

@Kamari@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
08M

They said buy, which means paying.

@ours@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
118M

In Switzerland it technically is legal. Only hosting for others is illegal.

Miss Brainfarts
link
fedilink
English
58M

Depends on the country

Queen HawlSera
link
fedilink
English
768M

I used to buy movies on Amazon, assuming it worked like Steam does, where if Steam loses the license to sell it, you still have the ability to play it even if Steam isn’t allowed to sell it.

Hell I still have access to the stuff I got back when Steam still sold movies (I honestly miss Steam movies…)

When people started telling me their copies of things they owned were no longer usable once Amazon stopped selling it, I stopped buying.

IF BUYING ISN’T OWNING PIRACY ISN’T STEALING!

d-RLY?
link
fedilink
English
98M

I haven’t ran into a situation where any of the digital copies of things I bought have been pulled. So I can’t speak to what happened with your friends. But I will say that if you have any purchased digital copies of movies, you should at least setup Movies Anywhere and link all accounts you have. It isn’t like how Steam will still allow you to download a pulled game. But it does give you copies of things on multiple sources once linked. So if you got something on Amazon, it would also be linked as “purchased” on other services like Vudu, YouTube/Play Movies, Apple, etc… It won’t apply to everything you have got but would likely cover most big name items.

It used to be marked with the old “Ultraviolet” branding, but when that was shutdown the basic underlying service was transferred to Movies Anywhere. Most of the time you can see which things would count because they have the MA logo. Not great for smaller releases and most shows won’t be part of it (atm at least). Though some shows might also show up, as I have seen things from HBO and some other ones.

All that being said. You are very much correct about “buying isn’t owning” these days. And even when there is something like MA, there are still thousands of movies and shows that will only ever get a digital “release” from torrents/P2P. Sad that some cool shit will never get a real HD re-master for Blu-ray (let alone streaming). I very much feel that studios should have at best a 10 year window to make whatever sales before the masters should be copied to public archives. If the studios won’t do it, then there are more than plenty of people out there that would do the job for the love of keeping old media preserved and accessible. Also bullshit when I try to go the “legal” route and find a show on one service in HD but only in SD on others. It is pretty infuriating to see that in some cases I can only get like season 2 of something on say Vudu for example, but season 1 is seemingly exclusive to Amazon. And one is in HD and the other is only SD.

@Kissaki@feddit.de
link
fedilink
English
68M

I looked at Movies Anywhere and

  • US only
  • Movies bought only (no series, does not support rentals)
  • sounds like they offer a unified interface to multiple providers - but you’re saying it unlocks the bought movies on the other platforms? - if it’s only a frontend it’d not help in keeping access
d-RLY?
link
fedilink
English
17M

I did fail to mention it is US only (my bad in that). Though it could get expanded if it is popular enough and it can be pointed to as “reducing piracy.” But international laws being complicated from nation to nation is also an issue, or at least something they might say. I haven’t been out of the country since setting it up, so I am curious if I would need a VPN to access my licensed stuff. Maybe would work for folks that have made accounts in the past with VPN? Idk.

It does work with some very limited sets of shows. But like I said, they aren’t really about that and the shows tend to be from studios like HBO. But not helpful for most anything other than movies.

It is a unified interface, but if I buy a MA labeled movie from say Vudu. It will also show-up in my iTunes, Microsoft, YouTube/Google Movies, Amazon, and of course MA. They have some additional connected services via Direct TV and Verizon, but I don’t use those. But the point is that if I get it on one of the services I connected, they become available on all of them. Even when the UltraViolet service went down, I didn’t lose the things I had bought. Though I think that Disney must have bought their connections and the UV stuff was migrated. Though I am not sure of those details. Either way it didn’t lead to me losing anything.

It also does require that you periodically sign back into their site to re-connect each provider similar to how you have to sign back into other sites. But again, I at no point have lost access to what was in my account if I haven’t signed in to re-verify. It isn’t as cut and dry as having the physical discs or a torrented copy on a NAS. But it is still worth knowing about if you have “legit” copies. I really wish that there were a way to link my Plex account and be able to watch them in the same front-end as my local stuff though. But no way that is going to happen unless Plex completely stops supporting the Plex Server and works out deals to use APIs of stuff like Vudu, Amazon, iTunes, etc…

@hperrin@lemmy.world
creator
link
fedilink
English
38M

I had an Oculus account. I bought games for Oculus. Facebook forced me to link my Facebook account to it. Facebook removed Oculus accounts so it was all under Facebook accounts. Facebook deleted my account. I no longer owned the games I bought. I deleted the Facebook app.

Queen HawlSera
link
fedilink
English
18M

I thought the facebook account requirement was removed

@hperrin@lemmy.world
creator
link
fedilink
English
28M

It may have been, but I wouldn’t know. I’m never going back on that platform again. They stole a couple hundred dollars worth of games from me.

@danekrae@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
50
edit-2
8M

Nobody with enough money has sued… Yet…

MudMan
link
fedilink
148M

I mean, you can “buy” stuff in Amazon Prime Video off service. Unlike Netflix or other platforms, they will let you “buy or rent” streaming movies, which is the same as finding the movie on the Amazon storefront and buying the digital copy instead of a physical copy.

Now, does that mean they won’t yank it? Not really. A digital license is a license, not a purchase. Is the word “buy” or “own” inaccurate? I’m hoping not, because like the Sony thing showed, platforms are desperate to not have the courts improvise what rights they owe the buyers on digital purchases.

I’m still buying my movies in 4K BluRay, though. And working on ripping all of them for streaming at home, now that I finally have the space.

@sleen@lemmy.zip
link
fedilink
English
18M

That’s very interesting. But do you always have to buy Blu-ray just to get digital copies? I wonder if there is other options to actually own the movies without the licensing bullshit.

MudMan
link
fedilink
58M

So far I don’t know of any services that will just hand you a digital file of a movie outside of physical media.

I say that’s a damn fine business opportunity, because I’d be all over it, but hey.

@grue@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
108M

A digital license is a license, not a purchase.

Stop repeating copyright cartel propaganda.

MudMan
link
fedilink
38M

If they have access to remove the media from your library on their end, then it’s a license and not a purchase.

That doesn’t mean they don’t owe you access to it, though. The fact that there isn’t a word for “I’ve acquired perpetual access even if I can’t back up the file itself” doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have the right to continue to access the media. Or to demand that right to be upheld in court, for that matter.

@Auli@lemmy.ca
link
fedilink
English
-18M

It’s not digital though. When you bought any physical media you purchased a license to view the content. You never owned the media on the disk cause that is the studios IP.

@grue@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
48M

You have always owned your individual copy of the media on the disk!

Again, quit falling for the propaganda.

Norah - She/They
link
fedilink
English
48M

This is like saying I don’t own my car because it’s the manufacturer’s IP.

Queen HawlSera
link
fedilink
English
68M

If buying isn’t owning, then you are being scammed.

How are you digitizing BluRays? I’ve not found a way yet due to the DRM on those fuckers.

jerb
link
fedilink
English
128M

Look into MakeMKV. It’s “free” while in beta (in practice you need to input a new license key from their forums occasionally, so inconvenient unless you buy a real license) and can rip Blu-Rays with no issue. For ripping 4K, though, you’ll need a drive that supports LibreDrive which bypasses all of the drive’s built-in DRM. I personally use an LG BU40N in a Vantec external enclosure.

Awesome, thanks for the pointers! I’ll look into it.

MudMan
link
fedilink
18M

This basically, which at that point rolls all the way back around to piracy, so hey, if you find an easier way to access a comparable file maybe it’s all shades of grey anyway.

@takeda@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
108M

That sounds more like what class action lawsuit is supposed to be for.

Damn straight. I want my $7.50!

@takeda@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
38M

Those are more to punish companies and change their behavior, which I think is what was desired here.

Of course they are a gold mine if you are a lawyer.

@grue@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
7
edit-2
8M

This sort of blatant violation of the First Sale Doctrine shouldn’t even require a lawsuit to stop; the FTC should prosecute companies for it proactively. We need to demand our government start doing its goddamn job again.

@BlueSnail@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
98M

Ross Scott of Accursed Farms is planning a lawsuit for something similar https://www.pcgamesn.com/the-crew/servers-shutdown-lawsuit

“I’m getting a lot of multi-page emails about possible legal proceedings and dozens of people claiming they have receipts,” Ross says. “I do want to emphasize that if I don’t get the help I need, then there will be no fundraiser, there will be no lawsuit, and this practice will continue unchallenged, at least in the US.”

Ross needs your help, lawyers!

@_sideffect@lemmy.world
link
fedilink
English
88M

“Feel like you own it NOW”

“…for NOW”

Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
!piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Create a post
⚓ Dedicated to the discussion of digital piracy, including ethical problems and legal advancements.

Rules • Full Version

1. Posts must be related to the discussion of digital piracy

2. Don’t request invites, trade, sell, or self-promote

3. Don’t request or link to specific pirated titles, including DMs

4. Don’t submit low-quality posts, be entitled, or harass others


Loot, Pillage, & Plunder


💰 Please help cover server costs.

Ko-FiLiberapay


  • 1 user online
  • 219 users / day
  • 509 users / week
  • 927 users / month
  • 4.94K users / 6 months
  • 1 subscriber
  • 3.2K Posts
  • 78.4K Comments
  • Modlog