“Reports have started to emerge of Apple completely deleting films from iTunes accounts even when they’ve been bought, not merely rented,” John Archer writes for Forbes. “And when people complain about this, they’re receiving an astonishing message from Apple telling them that iTunes is just a ‘store front,’ and so Apple isn’t to blame if a film studio decides it no longer wants to make its titles available on iTunes.”
“Even worse, it seems that if bought film titles are removed from your account you may not even be entitled to get a refund for them,” Archer writes. “When an iTunes user in Canada complained to Apple that their initial offer of a free $5.99 rental hardly seemed suitable recompense for him having three bought films summarily removed from his account, Apple replied that ‘our ability to offer refunds diminishes over time. Hence your purchases doesn’t meet the conditions for a refund.'”
Archer writes, “While I’m hearing from others who fortunately did get a refund for their deleted films, the bottom line in all this is that Apple appears to be openly saying that if you buy a film on iTunes, you don’t really own it at all.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This is nothing new. It’s in the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions to which users agreed when they installed iTunes and purchased the content.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Edward W.” for the heads up.]
An this, friends, is why DRM sucks.
Yep other bullshit on the part of the media as well as Apple. It’s thievery.
And also why file sharing will never stop.
I’m always telling friends NOT to pirate content, stay off of torrents and such, but it’d hard for me to make my case when they do things like this.
In 2009, I bought the soundtrack for Vanishing Point off iTunes. 3 or 4 years ago, all the songs except for one vanished out of the album folder. I thought it was really weird, so I dug out my backup. The songs were there, but as soon as I connected to the internet they also vanished except for that one song. Went to re-download, no longer on the iTunes Store. Support calls, escalation, more calls. After many emails at high level, they fessed up. Said the licensee discontinued, and it was recalled. Said the most they could give me was 5 song credits. I haven’t redeemed them and refuse to buy ANY music on iTunes anymore.
I think moral of story is that making an ITunes backup is a mistake, you need to download to your drive or a separate drive every item you buy from iTunes/Apple Music or any other streaming service.
Moral of the story: Burn them to CD as soon as you buy them
1) It’s legal
2) ripping them back into I tunes from CD removes the DRM
Problem solved
And people make fun of my old school ways of buying DVDs and BluRay DVDs. Lets just say this… I still own copies of my movies. The bad thing about the Cloud, is that it’s a Cloud. Drifting away in the ether.
Wow…. inbelievable !
Here comes another, yet very legit, class action law suit !
Agreed this is criminal. These media companies should all go bankrupt hopefully.
Perfect! If there’s no more content to buy, they will have nothing to take from us!
Naaaa… If the offending bstudios/distributers got the crap litigated out of them, they would either survive, lick their wounds and go on understanding ripping off people has consequences. Or they would go bankrupt and others would rush in to fill the void.
Thats the beauty of an open market, there are always a pack of competitors at your heels waiting for you to fail to deliver to your customers.
This has been happening for years. 8 years ago I had a lot of TV series items that I purchased simply go away. Apple gave the same reason. You are better off downloading all the files but better yet, buy the DVDs and rip them to your server.
I still buy from iTunes. strip the DRM, and keep them on my server. But you’re right, having the optical media works too.
Possession!
I’s relatively easy to remove the DRM\Backup to CD from purchased iTunes music but how do you do it with Movies?
There are ways with commercial programs that removes DRM.
The irony around all this is that media companies devise elaborate systems to stop the piracy of their content. But there isn’t a single movie that has been thwarted from entry to the torrents by these systems. If you want it DRM-free, you’ll be able to get it!
And here I was thinking of going with iTunes instead of UHD once Atmos is supported. Good to know.
If they downloaded it, they still have it.
The option to re-download it is not an option if the producers say no.
Still, that should have been in Apple’s original contract.
Maybe, maybe not.
Remember Amazon deleting 1984 from Kindles?
So much for downloads.
Did Apple do that?
Makes me not want to ever buy another iTunes song.
Yea, you were much better off buying your Zune music from Microsoft. 😉
App Store apps are like this as well.
“MacDailyNews Take: This is nothing new. It’s in the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions to which users agreed when they installed iTunes and purchased the content.”
It says NO WHERE, that if you purchase an item, that it will be stolen back and you’ll receive no refund.
Stop being an apple apologist. Under MDN warped thinking that if I purchase a DVD movie, then the movie theater can come into my house and take it back.
You’re not “RENTING” or “STREAMING” it as a part of a subscription.
SMH !!!!!
Well stated!
It isn’t “stolen back.” If you download it, you can save and keep it forever. If you don’t save it, the content (video, song, or app) is only available for as long as Apple has the legal right to download or stream it to you. It isn’t like the theatre coming to your house; it’s more like going to the theatre and demanding that they show you a movie they don’t have anymore.
It is disappointing, particularly since Apple TV, as opposed to other Apple devices, does not have the option of local storage. But, as MDM points out, you would not be surprised if you had read the contract you agreed to when you bought the content.
Technically, even the downloaded file needs a decryption key. Can’t they change it? Asking, not telling.
I’ve noticed that if Apple attempts to charge your monthly fee and has a problem, like your credit card has expired or changed or whatever, they won’t even let you play movies or content you already own.
I think it should be made clear to people that you NEVER actually own the movie or the content. You purchased a license that can be revoked at anytime. It should be made clear in easy to understand language, not legal jargon.
Wrong. Once you have purchased and downloaded to your physical computer or idevice, Apple should have no right to delete it off your computer, forcing you to recover it from your own personal physical back up. I have had music deleted out of my iTunes library in the past. Including music I own physical CDs of and not purchased online. I’m never subscribing to Apple music and if I do purchase a song from iTunes, it gets burned to a physical CD. Especially be careful when iTunes, iOS or macOS is updated.
They didn’t
Rent DVDs and Blue Ray from various services. RIP and Burn. Play through Plex. (I didn’t say that out loud did I?)
Yes you did, we are coming after you now.
Hope my VCR doesn’t die in 50 years. All those movies I have will be stolen away from me because they stopped making VCR’s. I want a refund.
A file is hardware neutral. Making it stop playing after it’s been paid for is theft
All you complaining people expecting that if you bought something you should be able to keep it need to get your act together and remember that these Producers, Actors, Directors etc. have a fabulous life style they need to support. Pay for another version of the film and help them out, instead of being insensitive, greedy jerks!
Shame on you for expecting to get the value you paid for! Next time read the entire license agreement you lazy good for nothing slobs!
Now excuse me while I go back to watching a movie DVD I got for free from my local library. I won’t be fooled again.
Before I get a lot of hate mail, I hope people realize that I am using the technique of exaggerating the opposite point of view to make my point.
My advice: never buy a move, song, photo, book, etc. you can’t download and copy to your backup drive.
So much for me wanting to update my Apple tv.
Dave’s not here. Neither are his iTunes movies.
After avoiding DRM like the plague all these years I recently began purchasing movies from iTunes with the promise of free future upgrades to 8K, 16K etc (like they did with 4K).
Luckily I also planned on DRM removal and backup.
That’s why I only watch VHS on my 60 inch 7.1 system. No one can take my VHS tapes.
“Call me old fashioned, but I still think there’s a lot to be said for buying movies on disc…” and that what I’ve been doing and then ripping them and placing the content on hard drives.
As well, due to lousy programming and some restrictions on streaming content in Australia I also use usenet and a VPN. I then have purchased and downloaded content on hard drives connected to a hub which is then connected to my ULED TV via a USB3 port.
To be honest I really tried to do the right thing regarding copyright but as a consumer I just got sick and tired of being jerked around by TV stations, international copyright agreements and restricted content (in other words content just not appearing in Australia) not to mention the delays between US and Australian release dates. In the end I just thought F… it, if they want to treat consumers like this then all bets are off.
As for Apple’s move; wow are they a profitable company!
That is why I don’t “buy” movies on iTunes.
How do they get away with the “No Refund”?
Hence the reason I acquire my movies elsewhere.
this is new to me and very shocking too. Now people will steal movies instead of paying for them. Just as well i dont have any movies on iTunes (do have on Amazon). I have rented movies on iTunes but that is about it. Not a nice development
DRM is really disgusting. Will you use the drm removal solution like TunesKit (https://www.tuneskit.com) to keep the purchased or rental movies, tv shows forever?
What is it about High Sierra that none of those tools work on it?
I suppose it’s fair enough if they’re no longer available for sale then they may also no longer be available for redownload, but you’d hope that people would be given notice to say that if they want to keep it they should download it to their device(s). Of course, you then get onto the issue of DRM. It seems unlikely that Apple will disappear and these files will be unplayable, but digital is not necessarily the wonderful, flexible future it’s billed as.
Back to buying physical media then.
Yea, depend on the cloud they said, the cloud is perfect they said, no one needs to keep a house server, the cloud will do it all they said.
Sorry, all you cloud proponents just got f’d. I’ll keep my server thank you very much.