PHYSICAL MEDIA - A comprehensive reversal is occurring more and more frequently.

A Google Play user recently found that his purchased digital copy of \*The Lord of the Rings: Extended Edition Trilogy\* had been completely removed from his library. No refund. No compensation. Google Support confirmed the title was pulled from the catalog due to licensing changes. The purchase was made in 2022, so it fell outside their 120-day refund window. Their position is clear:

“When you ‘buy’ a movie, book, or game on a digital storefront, you are not buying the item itself. You are paying for a limited, non-permanent viewing license.”

This is the standard model of digital distribution. Ownership is conditional and can be revoked at any time. This is one of the reasons the Ape movement around GameStop (GME) has repeatedly emphasized the difference between holding a claim and actually owning something. Whether it’s digital media licenses or shares held in street name, true ownership requires control that cannot be unilaterally taken away by a third party. Physical media remains one of the few ways to currently guarantee permanent ownership of a film without relying on a platform’s ongoing permission. Sauces: [https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/man…) https://www.neowin.net/news/user-laments-removal-of-purchased-lord-of-the-rings-trilogy-on-google-play/

29 comments held Reddit says 1 on reddit ↗

u/Superstonk_QV moderator pinned 1 1 day ago

Hey OP, thanks for the Social Media post. If this is from Twitter, and Twitter is NOT the original source of this information, this WILL get removed! Please post the original source! **Please respond to this comment within 10 minutes with the URL to the source** If there is no source or if you yourself are the author, you can reply OC
u/ApeironGaming OP 1 1 day ago

https://www.neowin.net/news/user-laments-removal-of-purchased-lord-of-the-rings-trilogy-on-google-play/ https://www.neowin.net/news/user-laments-removal-of-purchased-lord-of-the-rings-trilogy-on-google-play/
u/Klone211 1 1 day ago

Physical media isn’t that much better when licenses can be removed for that media. It’s just not nearly as commonplace but will be as time goes by. True ownership is the ownership of the license, not what the license is tied to.
u/Kuros_Of_Sindarin 1 1 day ago

If you have the physical media then it doesn't matter if the license is lost, you still have the media. The only way that isn't the case is if the media, most likely a game in this case, requires online access/servers. Otherwise you'd need to have some kind of lockout function on the reading device that checks the physical media against an online database of permissions before the player can actually play the media....and that doesn't really exist for the most part.
u/Klone211 1 21 hours ago

And you don’t think companies haven’t looked into a myriad of options towards that endeavor? My point is without proper regulation to stop the gatekeeping of paid media whether physical or digital, the shitification I described will happen. Instead, people are focusing on prior technology that obviously doesn’t have licensing issues and aren’t applicable to the rebuttal.
u/snaxrael 1 1 day ago

How is someone gonna revoke a license on a dvd I own? What the hell are you even talking about lol
u/quezlar 1 1 day ago

i always hear that bots are responding on these threads but this is the first time someone posted something so out of touch with reality i wonder if they are a bot and dont understand the concept of physical media
u/Klone211 1 21 hours ago

Did I not state it’s not commonplace but will be in the future? Many physical video games have licenses required for online play. Your example of a DVD (an old technology by current standards) is an easy choice to pad your argument. Might as well have used floppy disks and it would’ve carried the same weight. Talk about being unable to see the forest for the trees.
u/LingonberryNo4738 1 1 day ago

The easy solution is to quit paying full price for digital media as if you're buying it. Does that suck? Yes. It should be criminal for companies to sell temporary guaranteed access, in this cases 120 days, for full price. But they will because the rubes will pay.
u/klimocohc 1 1 day ago

Expiration dates on licenses should be legally up front and center.
u/type0neg420 1 1 day ago

![gif](giphy|tWmFhtmYmVs28uwOPf)
u/toturtle 1 1 day ago

Wasn't this the early use case for nfts before the "bros" got ahold of it and turned it into art grifting? So instead of buying a copy on whatever digital store whose licensing agreements change constantly, you're actually buying the license itself.
u/p0licythrowaway 1 1 day ago

Yea nft tech is awesome and will likely be huge in the collectible and in-game cosmetic space, but it’s gonna need to be completely rebranded
u/rematar 1 1 day ago

I can't imagine middlemen smearing the third version of the internet.
u/SadGigolo68 1 1 day ago

If people are not incentivized to buy digital legally, that hurts movie studios. Good for GameStop short term, since physical becomes collectible and desirable but it's killing the milk cow so to speak. People are going to be pirating like it's the 2000s again for films. Like all things in the market, they'll have to get fiscally slapped in the mouth before they revert their greed.
u/wenchanger 1 1 day ago

play station would be making a huge mistake going digital only
u/SuperPoop 1 1 day ago

if buying a movie does not constitute ownership..... then downloading a copy should not constitute theft
u/FireBear19 1 1 day ago

Yarrrr
u/jaykvam 1 23 hours ago

Me apey! 🦧🏴‍☠️
u/SweatyToothlessOgre 1 18 hours ago

https://preview.redd.it/qlbqh3e7euih1.jpe…
u/BOAViper1 1 1 day ago

Say that word again *buy*. All these transactions are thus rented.
u/rematar 1 1 day ago

I'm buying movies. The sound on Blu-ray and 4k is awesome.
u/PaleontologistDear18 1 20 hours ago

\*Pirate Flag\* is the only way to truly own your media. DVD or BluRay? Make sure you also BDRip that shit, those disks are FRAGILE.
u/SirCrimsonKing 1 20 hours ago

No.. You will own nothing, and be happy!
u/nicbongo 1 20 hours ago

Isn't this something NFTs could solve. Ownership in the digital age?
u/Pristine-Square-1126 1 20 hours ago

On top of that, buying digital, you pay the same price, yet it cost them so much less as they dont have to pay commission, warehouse, distribution, storefront. Way more profit yet still screwing over buyer.
u/H3RO-of-THE-LILI 1 19 hours ago

If it’s fair use for an ai center to copy and then destroy physical books they have purchased is it not also fair use to back up something you have purchased a digital license to view?
u/[deleted] 1 19 hours ago

[removed] — already gone when the archive first saw it
u/ExtentNo7951 1 19 hours ago

I've lived through losing 8 tracks and then records then cassettes and then CD's. I dont ever see any of them coming back. records survived a bit but just a bit. I heard a song I liked and wanted to support the artist and there was no real way to directly pay them for the song and keep it forever. movies are just next on the list of the enshitification cycle. At least I still have my sega genesis on my desk with games on cartridges that will be challenging for them to cancel.