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By Andrew O Hara
Sunday, September 16, 2018 at 16:17 Pacific Time (19:17 ET)
This weekend, Apple responded to a viral tweet claiming that it had withdrawn with its consent movies purchased on a user's iTunes account, triggering a wave of comments on the rights of digital media.
The tweet in question described a fairly simple scenario in which a user claimed that three movies that he had purchased on iTunes had been removed from his account, which meant he was unable to read them or download them. again. Apple's support acknowledged that the films were gone and tried to rectify the problem by providing rental credits, far from the value of the missing films.
Me: Hey Apple, three movies that I bought have disappeared from my iTunes library.
Apple: Oh yes, these are not available anymore. Thank you for buying them. Here are two movie rentals on us!
Me: Wait … WHAT ?? @tim_cook When did this become acceptable? pic.twitter.com/dHJ0wMSQH9– Anders G da Silva (@drandersgs) September 10, 2018
The problem and Apple's initial response prompted Apple to assume that the power to delete purchased media is free, but a survey conducted by CNET suggests that there is more in the story.
For starters, the user in question had recently moved from Australia to Canada, changing his active region in the iTunes Store. Some movies are not available in different regions and, if they are, they can be different versions of the movie. For example, production houses may change political or regional references, remove certain aspects of a film to satisfy the most conservative country's rating commissions, or change the name of a film to something more relevant to a specific audience. .
This seems to have been the problem in this particular situation.
In a statement provided to CNET, an Apple spokesman said, "Any movies you have already downloaded can be viewed at any time and will not be deleted unless you have chosen to do so. download from the movie store if the version you purchased is not available in the new country. If necessary, you can change the country in which you were to download it again. "
The statement suggests that neither Apple nor the studio have shot these specific movies. Instead, the titles probably have specific versions in Canada that are different from those available in Australia. Anders also seems unable to return to the Australian iTunes Store because it requires a local payment or billing address, which he no longer has. There are apparently workarounds here, but it seems unnecessarily difficult to achieve.
The crux of the problem is the physical property as opposed to the numeric property. To date, Apple has not revoked access to a movie that someone bought (outside of these marginal scenarios). For those who want to play it safely, best practices would involve downloading and creating a physical copy of the film. Store them on a hard drive, and if ever Apple or a studio was to remove access, you always have them at your disposal.
In this case, it seems that Apple Support is committed to finding a solution to allow Anders to have access to his films again. He was also a good sport about it, noting that he "has fallen into a license crack, it seems."
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