CNET:
Though his tweets went viral, and though he did chat with Apple Support, the company didn’t delete or actively “remove” the movies that disappeared from Dr. Anders Gonçalves da Silva’s iTunes library and his devices. It seems to have been a more complicated mix-up, based on the fact that da Silva moved his residence from one country to another.
Most importantly: Apple tells CNET that it won’t delete your movies, either. At least, not ones you’ve downloaded.
As is usual with stories like these, the facts come out a few days later but only after the sturm un drang.
Yeah nah.
The details of the story make it worse, not better. Yes Apple did delete his movies. He changed region, movies gone. That is the crux of the matter.
The sordid technical details are about why Apple deleted the movies, which is a huge mess of copyright, licensing, media classification and market segmentation.
These are reasons, not excuses. Just because you can explain why something broke doesn’t make it okay that it broke.
Pinning it on the user as “user doesn’t understand our Byzantine marketplace” is a very poor argument.
I hope you’re not blaming Apple for this. Region-based-licensing “sordid details” for video entertainment have never been under Apple’s control.Think back to the days when iTunes was attempting to negotiate music rights with record companies if you need a reminder of the morass they’ve had to deal with.
I wouldn’t blame this on the user. I’d blame it on the multinational studios that have long segmented consumers’ rights, both in digital and physical formats.
More or less exactly what I thought it was.
They didn’t delete his movies. They won’t him redownload AU movies in CA, no?
Deleting means things that “unable to redownload” does not.
(What’s “worse” about the details? Apple’s stuck with its contracts with the content providers, which it disclosed in the contract with the users.
Nobody reads those? Well, I knew that “content has regional licensing” and “you don’t actually own A Whole Movie outright because you bought a download”, already.)
That’s right. The lack of consistency in copyright, and the fact that one person can licence stuff through third parties and then have that licence revoked just because they move to a different place is quite daft.
When you change regions, the movies that you used to have are taken away.
Once I’ve licensed a work, why can that licence be revoked just because I move house?