Memory Holed Movies

 

Sony Playstation Store is a popular retailer that millions of people use to purchase computer games, software and other kinds of media, including films and TV programmes. I have never used it myself, but I have used similar sites like Amazon, ITunes and Vimeo; but I do so reluctantly for a good reason that I'll explain. A Facebook friend has informed me that Sony Playstation Store have started deleting some of their products. In fact 551 movies and TV series are now no longer available. By no longer available I don't just mean that they are no longer for sale; I mean that they have been deleted from the platform for everybody, including people who have already rented or bought them. The titles include such classics as First Blood, Terminator 2- Judgement Day and Bridget Jones' Diary. The reason for this is that Sony PS' licence with the distributor Studio Canal has just expired and has not been renewed. The users who paid for these products are receiving no compensation at all; no refunds, no discounts, no vouchers nothing. Users who "bought" the products are being treated as if they did not actually buy them; which in a strange way, they never did. You might think this is a violation of customers' statutory rights, even theft, and it should be; but technically it isn't. You see, when you buy an online movie it's not like buying a physical product. As an analogy, if I buy an apple from a greengrocer and walk out of the shop, the shopkeeper can chase after me and snatch the apple back, but in doing so he has to give me my money back by law. However, in the case of streaming service, all you are really buying is the right to stream the product from the site indefinitely, rather than for a fixed period of time, like with Amazon's rental. That purchase time period is indefinite, but not necessarily eternal. The platform retains the legal right to terminate that access at any time unilaterally. What's more the distributor can force them to do so. Your personal user licence agreement is therefore completely non-exclusive and revocable. Read the small print next time your given the "purchase or rent the movie" option; it's completely watertight I'm afraid. Source: https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/legal/psvideocontent/.

I know many people who do not own a DVD player and discs, paper books or even read hard copies of newspapers. They live in a bare habitat of monitors and devices that provide all their entertainment and education from remote online sources. "It's ever so convenient!" they gush. "I no longer have shelves of bulky plastic cases taking up all the room in my house." They are perfect devotees of Klaus Schwab's proclamation that "You vill own nossingk und you vill be happy." Perhaps this news from Sony PS will make them think again and realize that although those shelves might be obtrusive and make your home constrictive, they are actually very precious because they contain media in digital or print form that you have purchased in the literal sense and once it is in your hands and the money has been exchanged it is completely isolated from any interference, recall or control from the retailing body. It is totally and one hundred percent your property. They cannot take it back and they cannot alter it. In previous eras before online streaming became a thing, what Sony and Studio Canal have done would be impossible. They would just have to cope with the fact that all the people who bought their products can keep them. This is why I cherish my huge collection of books and DVD's, see: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2017/03/dvds-on-my-shelf.html and: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2017/03/books-on-my-shelf-part-2.html. Short of an accident or theft or me deliberately ripping them up and shoving them down the toilet etc, these items are indestructible. Remember how oppressive regimes always ban books. When those regimes fell the books were always recoverable because inevitably somebody somewhere would have a copy that the censors will have missed. Imagine if modern technology had existed in those days! No need for flaming pyres in the street, the propaganda ministry would just need to press a button. There's more though. Even things you think you own on Netflix or Kindle, even if they are not withdrawn, they can be altered remotely without your knowledge or permission. This has happened to me, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2020/12/1984-removed-from-kindle.html and: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2023/03/roald-dahl-memory-holed.html. This is extremely sinister because it gives the authorities a capability to commit censorship more terrible than at any other time in history. So, please! Get DVD's, downloads and good old-fashioned paper books! I know this is tricky with movies because some home media releases aren't even doing DVD runs anymore; but the more people who buy the DVD's the more the studios will be encouraged to invest in them. People ask me why my own books aren't on e-book outlets; well, this is your answer. If you want to read Roswell Rising and its sequels then I'm afraid it's paperback or nothing, see: https://hpanwo-bb.blogspot.com/2016/08/roswell-rising-is-here.html.