Want to watch movies, well Netflix is $7.99 a month of the most basic tier, $9.99 a month for Hulu, $6.99 for Disney +, Max is $9.99 a month, etc. Thats $35 a month or $420 a year just to watch your favorite movies and TV shows you don’t own. This may seem cheaper than cable, but if you want to watch any sports be prepared to pay over $100 a year per additional sport league.
After spending 100’s of dollars a year the moment you stop paying you can access none of it, you own none of it. Maybe you only watch a small handful of movies and tv shows and decide to purchase and own the content you really like. You purchase content on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Vudu, etc. finally at ease knowing you own the content you purchase.
Except you don’t.
Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Vudu, Microsoft Movies & TV, you name it, it has a clause allowing them to revoke access to your “owned” content without any warning, warranty, or reimbursement.
Sony was under fire in February of 2024 when they merged anime streaming service Crunchyroll with Funimation. During the merge, some content owned on the Funimation platform would not transfer to Crunchyroll and would be erased from user’s libraries. Sony clarified they would “try” to reach a resolution with affected users.
Forbes reported in 2018 that user’s purchased movies and tv shows were being removed from their personal library. Forbes reports that Apple told one user, “our ability to offer refunds diminishes over time. Hence your purchases doesn’t meet the conditions for a refund.” after a user’s content was removed from their library.
Significant ownerships rights have been seceded all in the name of convenience. Users are now forced to chase content around to different services charging various rates for many tiers.
If you want to own any movies and tv shows, you can purchase Blu-ray discs of your favorite content. Although not all content is properly released in physical media, much of it still is. You can use free services like Plex or iTunes Home Sharing to stream this content to other devices, but this isn’t truly a convenient option for 99% of the market.
Digital Protection Foundation 