No, Apple has not removed movies of this type. Here is what really happened

Perhaps you have heard a story like this:

"The" buy "button from Apple is a sham because Apple has the right to remove movies from your iTunes library after buying them.If Disney decides he no longer wants to offer a particular movie in your country, your" Buying "is no better than an extended rental." Only Blu-ray Discs and DVDs are safe. "

Here's the thing: Part of this can be true. But the story of the disappearance of digital copies is not. Or, at the very least, it's a lot more complicated than that.

Although his tweets have become viraland although he has spoken with Apple's technical support, the company has not actively removed or "deleted" the missing movies from Dr. Anders Gonçalves da Silva's iTunes library and devices. There seems to have been more complicated confusion, as da Silva moved his residence from one country to another.

Most importantly: Apple tells CNET that it will not delete your movies either. At least, not the ones you downloaded.

The tweet that triggered everything

This is not too surprising that the original tweetstorm caught fire:

It is hard not to be scandalized by a seemingly dull letter like the one above. "A customer bought these films, they left and he only gets a few rentals in exchange?"

Indeed, deepen the conditions of use of Apple, and you will find that it discreetly warns that you may not be able to download content again if it is no longer offered on our services. It's not hard to see why titles like "Apple can remove the movies you bought without telling you" began to spread on the Web.

But take a closer look at da Silva's tweet, and something interesting is happening. Apple Support thinks it's in Canada, while Da Silva's Twitter profile and LinkedIn show it's coming from Australia. It's a pretty big geographical difference.

When we contacted da Silva, he clarified the disparity: he moved to Canada about nine months ago, after the purchase of movies in Australia. Not only are two separate countries two separate iTunes Store regions. Perhaps Canada is not offering these films anymore, which has prevented them from accessing them in its new premises?

The fact is that these three titles – Cars, Cars 2 and The Grand Budapest Hotel, according to da Silva – are always available for purchase in Australia and Canada, CNET has confirmed. He could buy new copies "Canada" right now. So, why did his "Australia" copies disappear?

Nor does it seem that Australian purchases do not work in Canada. "I have other purchases in Australia, and using the same Australian iTunes account, which work perfectly well," da Silva told CNET.

Generally, you can Take iTunes purchases with you when you travel, even if the small print of Apple includes a reservation in case of disappearance:

But there is another possibility: perhaps da Silva still has access to Australian versions of these films, but not to Canadian versions?

Declaration of Apple

That's certainly what Apple seemed to be referring to when we talked to the company this weekend. Apple said:

"All the movies you have already downloaded can be viewed at any time and will not be deleted unless you have chosen to do so.If you change the settings of your country, some movies may not be downloaded again. you have purchased is not available in the new country.If necessary, you can change your country to return to your previous country in order to download these movies again. "

Of course, Apple's statement does not say exactly what happened to the movies of da Silva, or admits that Apple's assistance may have made a mistake when analyzing the response of D & # s 39; origin. But this clearly indicates that the company does not delete movies without your permission – and that you should even be able to re-download the movies from your "previous country" if they are not available in the new one.

Two possible culprits

More likely, the phrase "if the version you bought is not available "says a lot about what really happened here Few films have a single version sold in the world.For various reasons, a film can be reduced in one country to obtain a more accessible rating (for example, PG-13 in the United States), or to delete politically or culturally sensitive content, not to mention director's cuts, in which several versions of the same movie can be sold in the same region.

The other problem is that the "region jump", a common tactic among moviegoers around the world to get past or different versions of movies, is getting harder and harder. So, even if someone has legitimately moved from one region to another, as Dr. da Silva did, he risks being penalized by digital walls that sellers like Apple and Amazon continue to raise to fill the regional gaps. (Amazon, Vudu and all other digital content retailers have the same type of contract with Apple's studios.)

Indeed, these films can still be stored on the Australian account da Silva – but he can not easily return to Australia to download again.

When we asked him to try, he sent us this photo:

Apple generally requires that customers have a local credit card or PayPal account, which usually means that it also needs a local billing address. As he now lives in Canada and not in Australia, it's a bit difficult – even though Silva says Apple's support promises to send him a solution.

But even the workaround is not particularly user-friendly. To return to the Australian store, da Silva will have to give up his subscriptions to Canadian stores and his in-store credits, he says. (The Apple support page suggests the same thing.) And if he wants to go back to the Canadian store, he will have to download them to a Mac or iOS device and use them as a local server for them. broadcast on his Apple TV.

What we still do not know

The reason why Silva's missing films have received so much attention: they have apparently revealed that Apple would not support its customers if the studios were trying to shoot their films. We now know that it is premature to say something like this.

To be clear, the ability to buy or rent movies on services like iTunes and Amazon is already fluctuating according to the "windowing" schedules of the studios. But even if a movie that you could buy on iTunes would not be available for a few weeks – or months – it remains accessible in the cloud to customers who bought it at the time of sale.

At least that is how it has worked so far. We can not be sure what will happen if Disney – or any other content provider – "remembers" a digital purchase, as did a publisher with a purchase. 1984 eBook of George Orwell on Amazon in 2009. It seems like your "already downloaded" movies are safe, but what about cloud-based movies that you've never aired? Apple does not say.

We may have to cross that bridge when we get there. As for da Silva, he now admits that his situation was a bit complicated:

"I fell into a license loophole, it seems."