Still waiting on proof on the original story. One thing that would help is knowing the three titles that disappeared.

Assuming this is true, it's another FU to the people that legitimately purchase media.

Pirates don't have their media taken away. Nor are they subject to regional restrictions. They aren't forced to watch unskippable trailers or other content.

This is why I always download the available content that I've purchased after it ports over to iTunes via MoviesAnywhere. Buy a bigger hard drive, and the person in the story wouldn't have even noticed.

I guess I should have been more specific about that. Yes, they can be downloaded, but limited to the app/program downloaded on. It's just not a file we can put on our computer and do anything we want with it. I think that's what people are wanting, the ability to control a file and do anything they want with it.

Shout Factory is very happy that this story is spreading. Slash Film also picked it up and did a write up.

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Sure, the consumer wants that, and it was possible in the early days of digital copy where you actually downloaded a WMV (or whatever format) file, but studios generally don't want that. That's why DVDs had/have copy protection, and obviously a digital file is even less desirable for them because a customer doing "anything they want with it" can include throwing it on a public server somewhere.

With so many reports (that I've seen) it seems it's a real issue. But, most of the time (again, that I've seen) it appears to be a temporary glitch that eventually gets fixed.

MA even has a help topic on these Marvel movies:
https://help.moviesanywhere.com/hc/e...ywhere-library

And, I'm not sure downloading works on iTunes. When things were bouncing back and forth between SD & HD, I started downloading them when they showed HD. Then when I noticed they went back to SD, I tried playing it and it said I didn't own that item any longer.
If you go to your Movie Library on iTunes on a computer, they are always changing the Date Modified. I don't know why, or what they're doing when they do that.

Robert Meyer Burnett was the one who picked up that thread on Twitter and he's a guy who works in Hollywood as a film editor and producer as well as being a vlogger. So that's probably why it gained some traction yesterday.

Still looking for proof and a list of the three titles that were removed.

Why kind of actual evidence do you need? The guy who posted that Tweet posted the letter he got from Apple. That's really all that's out there. Why would he make up losing movies and complaining to Apple for no reason.

I assume they might be older movies as it's highly unlikely a newer title would be dropped.

With a list of titles one could research if the title was available on iTunes at one time and since removed. And it's easy to fake a letter. It could be true, but I see no reason to accept the word of some random guy on twitter.

When Walmart bought out the original VUDU, they removed all adult movies and refunded any purchases for them.

The situation in the first post is why I continue to cling to CDs and BDs. I'm not leaving it up to the content owner's whims or changing business model to allow me the rights to watch a movie.

Once streaming is widely adopted, pirated digital content will also become increasingly scarce. Most torrented content now is from physical media rips.

The all-streaming future has obvious downsides that are largely being downplayed to speed up adoption rates.

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/column...ts/091318-1100

Bill Hunt did a big write up on this specific topic on his site.

Actually, over the past 2 years, I've noticed a huge increase in WEB-DL and WEBRips. Especially since many movies are released early on digital. And there's lots of catalog stuff that never got a disc release and is only available on streaming.

Oh REALLY- Vudu actually was the FIRST instance of purchased content being lost when they pulled all the porn titles after Walmart bought the company out. Purchases were refunded, but it shouldn't be anyone's position to decide something is 'bad' and take it offline. Since I've gotten literally EVERY free TV episode they've ever had though, I haven't lost a single one of those even when they've been pulled from being purchased- yet at least. I've still got two free "Here Comes Honey Boo-Boo" promo segments; every once in a while I check to make sure they're still there.

I bought an Alice in Chains album through iTunes a couple of years and lost it. Weirdly it’s still available for purchase, so it may just be a glitch in my account, but it doesn’t show any indication that I ever bought it in the first place.

The Mandela Effect!?!?

Well lets look at CinemaNow...they vanished, no opportunity to download or offer to move your movies (like Target moved them...to CinemaNow!)

Luckily I only had a few things with them, but POOF...they are gone.

It could be a rights issue. For example, the album you bought might have been through licensing by a record label that no longer has those rights. The version you see on iTunes may be from a different record label, or something to do with Staley's estate. Of course, you could just re-download previously purchased content and find out, but that's besides the point

iTunes is correct. They are licensed to sell content via whoever owns the copyright. If that license expires, it no longer appears in their library, thus it is no longer streamable. It's why they don't sell the "Ultimate" edition of "Watchmen" on iTunes. They aren't licensed to. You can get it at Apple's competitors, but not in iTunes.

Movie fans have been dealing with this for years -- and the best example is the Criterion Collection. I used to want a Criterion version of several films -- long before DVDs came out because I wanted to see extras, hopefully get a cast commentary like there were on some of those laserdiscs back in the 90s. Years later, I learned what Criterion actually was, and that they only released films that they were authorized to. And that often, films that had been released on one format were not released on another (laserdisc on Criterion, but not on dvd, blu-ray, and so on). This was more often than not due to no longer having rights to re-release on the new format, or that it was never in the original agreement for them to have the rights until infinity.

If you download a film from iTunes (not stream it) after purchasing it, it won't matter if Apple loses the ability to sell it. You'll still be able to play the physical file you downloaded in iTunes. You just won't be able to stream it.

Vudu may say that users own whatever they purchase from Vudu, but are wrong.

Just because you own the blu-ray or DVD doesn't mean you own the film. You purchased rights to your own personal physical copy of the film, but much like downloadable purchased films -- you agree to certain restrictions depending on the format. Nobody is going to be asked by the current or future copyright holder to give up their Criterion collection copy of "Good Burger" -- but you don't have the right(s) to do certain things with it.

This !... and I lost credit I had on my account on top of losing content.

Could be. But it doesn’t show as something previously purchased. A re-download would require a re-purchase. I just need to get in touch with a CSR but I’m so busy that doing so is on the back-burner.

From this article it seems there is more to the story than initially reported. He bought the movies on his Australian iTunes when living in Australia. He couldn't access them in his Canadian iTunes after living in Canada.


https://www.cnet.com/news/no-apple-d...ally-happened/

What concerns me is the cloud vs download that I've seen referenced in most of these articles. Downloading tons of films is not always an option. And if so, are the downloaded ones DRM in some way depending on service used to download. And if said service ceases to exist are the downloaded copies just as susceptible to "loss" of access.

This just might be the digital version of disc rot. Ugh.

I think some of the coverage of the original story is a bit alarmist. The notion that any of the digital content you've purchase can or would be pulled at any time may be technically possible, but I don't believe it will ever happen on the scale that some are suggesting.

That said, I don't buy digital movies because the economics don't make sense to me. When I buy physical media, I'm in total control of when and where I can watch the content. I can easily let a friend borrow it. 20 years from now, as long as I still have the player to play it, I can easily watch it. (And yes, I still have a few DVDs from nearly 20 years ago that I still watch). All of that has value I'm willing to pay for.

If I buy a digital copy, I'm buying the ability access the content from someone else's server, using an app that has to get updates and requires an account with which I must be logged in. I might be able to download it locally, but it's still only watchable with the respective app. There are too many variables that are out of my control. Charging $20 for that seems ridiculous, when the physical copy can almost always be had for less and carries much more value to me because I attribute much more value to personal control than convenience.