Let’s say you want to purchase a movie in the early 2000s; you head to a Blockbuster store, buy a DVD, and proceed to head home. For the rest of your life, that DVD is your very own property. Now let’s imagine the same instance in 2024. You settle down on a couch, open a streaming service, and purchase a movie for $9.99. But is that movie really yours?
Since 2005, DVD sales have plummeted. The leading factor for this is undeniably the rise of digital media; people have been resorting to digital media instead. According to the Academy of Animated Art, 83 percent of the US population uses streaming services like Prime Video, Disney+, or Netflix.
Whether it’s music, movies, or shows, you can find everything online nowadays. People have gone from buying DVDs, cassette tapes, and CDs to consuming media on streaming services. And while the digitalization of purchasing media has brought undeniable convenience to customers, there are definite drawbacks as well. Many users are entirely unaware that purchasing a movie or song through a service like Amazon Prime does not make the media yours. Instead, you’re buying the rights to watch and view the movie or listen to the song. This only applies to how long the streaming service has the right to stream it.
When people browse for movies online, spend $20 on a new blockbuster, and wait for a couple years, they might have to buy it again. With the ever changing landscape of streaming services and movie rights, users can lose access to the movies they’ve purchased. This happens when the streaming service loses the right to stream the media. For example, when your favorite show gets moved from Netflix to Peacock, that means Netflix has lost the right to stream it.
Most companies have the right to take away your purchase when the movie gets taken off of their platform. There is no refund and no way to get your money back, which has raised concerns from consumers. Giving people the option to buy things while also having the right to just take them away at any time breaches the trust between consumer and distributor. And streaming services have found themself in court having to remind others that the users don’t own the content. In 2016 Amazon Prime found themselves being threatened to be sued by a user. The user, Amanda Caudel, stated that Amazon Prime “secretly reserves the right” to end users’ access to purchased movies. Amazon fought back saying that, “These Terms of Use expressly state that purchasers obtain only a limited license to view video content and that purchased content may become unavailable due to provider license restriction or other reasons.” As of recently, Amazon has asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit.
Having access to digital media is incredibly important. But users should be able to do that without having to worry about spending money on something just to have it snatched away.