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Remember when you decided to buy rather than rent this movie online? We have bad news for you – you have not done it.

Biologist Anders Gonçalves da Silva was surprised this week to find three movies that he had purchased via iTunes, he simply disappeared one day from his library. So he contacted Apple to find out what had happened.

And Apple told him that he no longer had license fees for these movies, so they were removed. To which he of course answered: Ah, but I did not rent them, I actually bought them with your "buy" option.

At that time, da Silva drew a valuable lesson on the realities of digital shopping and the modern rules of licensing: even though he had bought the movies, he had actually paid to be able to download the film on his hard drive.

"Know that the iTunes / App Store is a showcase that offers content providers a platform or place of sale of articles," informed the company. "We can only offer what has been made available to us – since the content provider has removed those films … I can not provide you with the copy of the films."

Of course, he could broadcast it when he wanted it since he'd bought it, but once those license fees were lifted, he had not downloaded the movie, he was gone – forever.

This is clearly not the first time Apple has met people who imagine that by buying something they own, the company has offered two movie rentals of up to $ 5.99 to make amends. But the three movies that he thought he had "bought" cost a lot more than $ 12, he complains.

Decreasing returns

No dice. "Our ability to issue the refund decreases over time, so your purchases do not meet the conditions for a refund.To learn more about our refund policy, check out this page," he said. .

But follow this link and there is no clear language on refunds. What it means: "All transactions are final Content prices may change at any time If technical problems prevent or delay the delivery of the Content, your sole and exclusive remedy is the replacement of the Content or the refund of the prize. paid." by Apple. "

In other words, Apple has full discretion to refund you in full, in part or not at all. And in this case, he used his discretion to grant him two more movie rentals credits of $ 5.99 or less.

Of course, from Apple's point of view, it's perfectly reasonable: it literally does not have the right to provide access to a movie if license fees expire. And in good faith, he offered him $ 24 in equivalent credits to make up for his loss.

But it's safe to say that hardly anyone understands that when you "buy" a movie online, you only buy the right to take a digital copy that day. Apple suggests that people want to download their purchases, but the number of people actually involved is far from obvious.

He notes again: "It is your responsibility not to lose, destroy or damage the content once downloaded. We encourage you to back up your content regularly. "

The situation is all the more complicated as additional restrictions are imposed on the number of times you are allowed to record a copy of your digital content and on the number of different machines, in order to prevent the piracy.

Not just Apple

And it's not fair to distinguish Apple: virtually all digital content providers have the same rules. Amazon had hot water a few years ago when its contract with Disney expired and customers discovered that their purchases of expensive movies were gone during the night. In 2009, there was a similar ruckus when he released the 1984 George Orwell classic from Kindles without notice.

In fact, of course, these huge companies are working to ensure that their licensing agreements with the major content companies are maintained so that the situation only happens occasionally. And these transactions are generally worthwhile for both parties as they are continually renewed.

But with a lot of changes in the content industry, it's a problem that could very well get worse with business competition. Apple, for example, will soon enter the fray with dozens of new shows of original content. And it has a long history of aggressive blocking from other companies like Amazon (the Prime Video app from Amazon has recently been added to the AppleTV store).

Disney is also considering launching a stand-alone service for its huge film catalog, and as part of this strategy, may decide to withdraw its licensing agreements from other outlets.

And if the solution is to download movies, the reality is that they take up a lot of space. The basic level AppleTV for example only contains 32 GB of space. A DVD-quality movie will typically last around 4GB and a 7GB or 8GB Blu-ray movie: which means you can only download four to eight movies before you run out of space.

This is something that can only be solved when two big companies compete and the lawsuits are started. Of course, it would be much easier if, before that, companies like Apple were implementing a series of new measures, such as giving customers who "bought" a movie notice of the need to download a movie; or negotiate new digital download rights to adapt to the modern streaming era.

But it is unlikely that it will happen before. Which means that the best advice is quite simple: if you want to own a movie, buy it in physical format – a DVD or a Blu-ray disc. And if you do not, rent and distribute it. ®