Sony is going to remove certain purchased titles from user libraries

I wish u could retweet a lemmy comment. Well said.
- technically you can since lemmy, kbin, and mastodon all use activitypub :P
- You can on /kbin
Fairer words have never been spoken

Cool tattoo idea!

Absolutely insane.

I can understand extreme cases, like some sort of disputed IP where their contact to sell the content turns out not to be with the actual rights holder, resulting in no longer serving the content (with an unconditional full refund). But past that they should be legally required to host the content until the heat death of the universe.

- This is all movie/show content. It’s still BS, but it’s licensed TV/movie content that’s the problem. The dumb laws we have really are the problem.
- Steam is the same. It's just a license to play the game. GOG is better in this regard.
- Unfortunately it’s the same situation on steam. You are only buying licenses to games you don’t actually own it, they can be taken away at any time with no recourse. Steam might be doing good now in this regard but it’s hard to say if it will stay like this forever.
Give it another 10 years, you won’t “own” anything. It’ll be “licensed.” Weird tho. Digital content is endless. But you can’t consume it into extinction; physical things are finite, but we’re like here take it! It’s yours! Call a cop or shoot anyone trying to take it.
Seems backwards to me.
- There was probably nothing Sony could do
  Wrong, Sony could issue full refunds to customers or ask WB the royalties back. Sony should had a clause in their contract with discovery that allowed them to host the video files indefinitely, if it was voided all the royalties to be refunded as a penalty fee.
  When Google closed their digital magazine store, they let users download the PDF or to get a full refund.
  Google again, closed stadia and everyone got a full refund even if all the devs were paid
  When a game is delisted on Steam, Valve continues to host the files for previous customers.
  But here no, they already got the money, they know that console users are used to just STFU, they saw that they can save a lot of money by deleting hundreds of TB of video content, and seized the opportunity
  At least have the decency to do a partial refund where only the royalties paid to Discovery are kept. Or if not a money refund a store credit as goodwill. Or a prorated refund/store credit according to how many times it was viewed. Never viewed = full refund, viewed once, keep the price of a rental, and so on. Or force WB to transfer the license in another digital locker.
  But no, nothing.
  Had I purchased that video content just to see it disappear from my archive, I wouldn't ever trust them anymore for future purchases and exclusively resort to piracy. (Well I do it already but this is an example) It's a lose-lose situation for Sony and for WB. The rightholders do extensive campaigns "please pay for movies and show, don't steal them", then if someone believes them and *purchases" the video content, he is the one that will actually get something stolen
- That, or Sony didn’t want to pay the fee to extend the licensing agreement. Sony has a history of screwing over their customers and being a cheap skate. (Removing Linux from PS3, releasing controllers without force feedback because they didn’t want to pay the license fee, installing root kit malware on PCs of buyers of their CDs)

"We sincerely thank you for your continued support."

As in stfu and keep giving us money?

Looks perfectly translated to me

Now THAT is stealing.

"But you only ever owned a usage-license, which we now suspended" strawman argument incoming.

Well duh, then i don't have "buyed" but rented it. Usage of those terms by platforms should be sued as misleading.

I look forward to the class action suit, and the $14 check I'll get in the mail.

Alright, what this looks like is Sony's deal with Discovery to sell and host their TV shows has been removed. From my quick glance there are no games being removed.

Still is BS, and beyond ridiculous. But it was inevitably going to happen at some point.

I am more pissed that I got informed that they are doing this from here instead of being told that I am losing my Myth Busters.

But it was inevitably going to happen at some point.
If you believed this, wtf would you ever give them your money to begin with???
- Because it was 2009, I was I kid, and I saw Mythbusters and I said yes. I learnt my lesson when they remove PlayStation Video years ago from PS3, and the PSP. I didn't even know I could re-download it until I stumbled upon it in a menu years later.
  I am just hoping and praying that this will not extend to their games. Sony's been pretty good about game ownership to this point, look at those who bought the PT Demo and can still play it.

And this is why I never “buy” media online. If I can’t own the media and enjoy the content whenever and wherever I want, it’s rented. I may be ok with that, but I never let them claim that it was a sale.

- That's one reason I've ordered a few titles from PlayAsia recently. For example, the NTSC switch edition of the Metal Gear Solid collection requires downloading the titles. With the PlayAsia edition, lo and behold- everything is on the card, and multiple languages to boot.
- Hence “and enjoy it whenever and wherever I want.” If they maintain control, it’s not sold. It is, at best, rented.
  Fortunately, there are often tools to enforce the first sale doctrine.
Buy it for the convenience and for the good Devs, pirate it after if they try taking it away. You already paid for it
- Exactly.
  It's much the same as creators in Second Life who don't want to sell in the Opensim metaverse. I get where they're coming from in terms of protecting a recurring revenue stream, but if the customer has already paid for the product once, under first sale doctrine, they have the right to continue using it.
- Slap one pirating at the front if it's a game with no demo.

That's one reason why Piracy will always exist, am I right?

It’s why it must exist.

God, I hope these bastards get sued 'cause little doubt they won't be refunding the poor schmos who've just been robbed of their property.

I'm sure they covered this in the terms of service that they know no one ever reads.
- In many countries that wont work. The Terms of service need to only include reasonable and expectable clauses, as they are not negotionable.
  And "purchase doesnt mean ownership, we take it from you anytime we want" is neither reasonable nor expectable.
  Also this should run under criminal fraud imo. The customers were deliberately deceived by the term "purchase" into believing they would be granted ownership.

Fucking assholes. This is why piracy is justifiable, and in some cases, even necessary.

If I’m to believe I own the crap I buy that’s digital delivery, then if they want to take it back, they need to buy it from me at my price.

This won't change until someone sells a yacht to a Senator with fine print that it's only a perpetual license. Then comes back 3 years later and takes the yacht citing the fine print in the contract.

If I purchased it, do I get store credit for losing what I bought?

That's funny. You should do stand-up
Yes, but since it's "used", you get .1 percent what you paid for it.
- It loses 70% of it's value as soon as you ~~drive~~ watch it off the lot
lol

Discovery Entitlements Affected Titles

As of 31 December 2023, due to our content licensing arrangements with content providers, you will no longer be able to watch any of your previously purchased Discovery content and the content will be removed from your video library.

We sincerely thank you for your continued support.

Thank you,

PlayStation Store

Turns out you people didn't actually purchase it.
I wonder if anywhere in the "purchase" terms they included "while Sony holds the license to distribute."
I hate that "purchases" people make are restricted per platform. If I "purchase" a specific title it should be available on any and all platforms that serve that content. No one should be asked to purchase it on Sony. Apple, Netflix, Amazon, or whatever other shitty streaming service comes out.
As much as I think nfts are fucking retarded, this could be one of the few cases where that stupid digital receipt might make sense.
- Y’arr Matey🏴‍☠️
- My understanding was this was the actual intended use case for NFTs. To allow you to properly own a digital item. The fact that it got applied to a stupid fad right out the gate doesn't change the fact that it should actually be used to allow us to own things again.

just got my multi season science fiction show downloaded via the salty seas. apparantly it would cost $50-85 to download or stream from the "legit" vendor. A vendor that bought the rights and closed the ability to access previous seasons. So, not going well for the loyal customers.

That list of shows that's being removed is huge too.

God I hope people reconsider purchasing products from companies that do these kind of things to them.

At some point you think if they get smacked up the side of their heads enough times that they will actually wake up and do something about it.

almost like "purchasing" it was the real crime.

Scrolling through the list I can't believe that people actually watch that shit, let alone pay for it.

It's all the kind of crap that people leave used to leave on in the background and to get bombarded with 4 sets of adverts an hour. The direct result of needing to fill 200 channels as cheaply as possible.

Refunding everyone would probably cost Sony less than a million. I'd wager some of those shows nobody has ever purchased.

You don't like it which is fine but no need to call out people who do. My dad loves deadliest catch and has been watching it for years, he records it and then fast forwards through the ad breaks something that's been around 10 years now.
Deadly Dentists didn't get good until season 2 anyway.

That's 1318 items, according to that table, counting by seasons. Insane.

This is why i hate digital only and no more game disc, also battlepass and dlc.

you own nothing but pays the full price for the permission to play and they cant remove access at any time.-

Marvel vs capcom 2 its my favorite game and they removed from store, i know is about licensing but they will not come to my house for the DVD Disc right?

Whoever wrote that list probably isn't being paid enough.

sony is going to steal

On the one hand, I sympathize with anyone losing access to How It's Made and Mythbusters. But for everything else on that list, that money was already thrown away for no good reason. I'd like to hope the audiences were small or non-existent to begin with.

Sony is doing the world a favor by purging most of that garbage from their service, to be perfectly honest.

Some series have a weird pattern of deletion.

LA Ink | Season 1
LA Ink | Season 6
LA Ink | Season 7

Lolwut. Does it mean 2-5 are still availiable or they never were?

It's all Discovery Channel's properties, and it's a good day to rewatch their classics and seed them.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but Sony kind of has their hands tied on this one. The shows they’re delisting (or are not able to relicense) kind of get to take their IP off of the system, no?

I imagine that is the case, however they could refund it given the situation.
I get the feeling they won't allow refunds.
- True, but I doubt any giant corp entity would do refunds in this day and age.
  Not defending Sony, just saying this is SOP, as shitty as it is.
If they didn't have a licence to host it in perpetuity, they shouldn't have sold it in the first place.
Yes, they should pull it if they legally have to. That's following the law. However, they should refund consumers in full or ensure that they continue to have the media without restrictions.
- More than refund should be legally due. The cost to repurchase the product is what is due.

This has actually always been my reason for piracy. I've always been able to afford games, thankfully, so I've used piracy as a means of demoing games as demos became more and more rare and more commonly and more importantly I've used piracy as a means of preserving games. I have no problems paying for a game if I can also keep it indefinitely and play it forever, and thanks to piracy that is actually possible.

Did anyone actually read the link? Everyone in the thread is talking like they pulled video games. They literally only pulled Disney TV content from like 20 years ago. Now of course that's still crappy but stuff like this has happened for TV content before and it won't be the last time this happens.

We can freak out when they actually do this to video games and not some 20 year old awful reality TV content no one watched anyway.

Nobody is mentioning TV Show vs video game because there is no difference.
Taking away any content a user has paid for is unacceptable without a full refund at absolute minimum.
The point is if they do it for this there is no reason they wouldn't do it to other forms of media. Youre either introducing a strawman argument or missing the point