Yes, you can own movies you buy from Apple, Kinda



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On Wednesday, a man became viral after he published his dispute with Apple on three films he had already bought that had disappeared from his iTunes library. Many people have taken this as an opportunity to remember that the property is dead and that we are only renting. It is also an opportunity to remember that this is not exactly the case.

Ander G da Silva has published his correspondence with Apple Customer Service in a timely manner. The big revealing event of the iPhone was happening, his tweet was noticed and people got angry. He explained that three movies "purchased" via iTunes had disappeared from his library and had shared an email from Apple explaining that the content provider was no longer offering content from the iTunes store. He was offered a free movie rental worth up to $ 5.99 for his problems. It was understandable that he was upset by this low ball offer to make him leave.

Many outlets have told Silva's story and used it as a moment to remind people that they do not really own what they buy on iTunes. Moviegoers have seized the moment for tweet their preference for the purchase of physical media. Edgelords on Reddit rolled his eyes with "duh, everyone knows it" missives. These reactions are both correct and somewhat exaggerated.

The fact is that you can keep the shows and movies you buy on iTunes, even if the content provider deletes the titles from their catalog.

There is a legitimate philosophical argument about digital rights management, what it means to own something and the misleading use of the term "buy". This argument was much more important when the hacking was more popular and the streaming did not become so common. But as is the case today, you can buy a digital file from a movie from Apple and save it to your hard drive.

You can find detailed instructions on transferring your iTunes library here, but be aware that it's as simple as finding the iTunes folder where your media files are stored and dragging them to the hard drive. The only thing to keep in mind is that all your purchases might not be stored locally. Especially if you have made a purchase with the Apple TV, this one can only be stored in the cloud. In this case, simply go to the shop > Bought in the iTunes menu. You should see a list of your purchases. Find the one you want to download and click the "Download iCloud" button.

I still have MP3 backups from the late 90s and I was extremely valuable for keeping my media files on multiple hard drives. While streaming has become more convenient, I do not continue to make such backups. People who mainly go through Apple TV may not even know that backups are possible.

None of this totally negates the fact that property as a concept is dying. If we're talking about a DVD or a Blu-ray, all I have to say is: buy the DVD, now you have it. But DVDs do not last forever and are vulnerable to damage. It can be argued that a digital file that you periodically pass from one form of storage to another is an even stronger form of ownership. The problem is the DRM.

Apple uses DRM to maintain the proprietary files of its products and to ease the privacy concerns of the content manufacturers. DRMs are a plague. But breaking the DRM is not the worst thing in the world, even if it's not entirely legal. But it's perfectly legal for me to point you to a service like TunesKit that removes the DRM and converts the file into a more universal format. Unfortunately, DRM changes all the time, needs to be reversed and solutions need to be updated. TunesKit currently requires complex troubleshooting procedures to work on High Sierra, and the new Mac OS update is scheduled for the end of the month.

Everyone is right to worry that this kind of complicated madness is bad for consumers and that everyone is right to say that the guy who lost his movies was screwed up. In addition, each digital movie buying service will have different disadvantages and rights. But if you use iTunes, know that you should go ahead and do the backup now.

[[[[Anders G da Silva]

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