Better think twice about iTunes Movie Purchases

turingtest2 wrote:

If you download your purchases from the iTunes Store and back them up then you can keep them for as long as you can avoid losing all of your copies at once. Much like a DVD or Blu-Ray purchase is yours for as long as you can avoid losing or damaging the disc. Physical media doesn't guarantee you access to the content in perpetuity.

tt2

But they are tied to your Apple ID.

If you download your purchases from the iTunes Store and back them up then you can keep them for as long as you can avoid losing all of your copies at once. Much like a DVD or Blu-Ray purchase is yours for as long as you can avoid losing or damaging the disc. Physical media doesn't guarantee you access to the content in perpetuity.

tt2

Perhaps the difference is that some of us have been using iTunes since the days when it was clear that you only got one successful download of each item and you were prompted to backup. The rules have evolved gradually over time. I believe that in some cases Apple have moved to change the agreements with some suppliers, e.g. for apps, so that a developer removing items from the store prevents new purchases, but does not prevent previous owners from accessing the content. They may try something similar with movies too, particularly given that they don't supply downloads of 4K content which can only be streamed.

tt2

Use Feedback - iTunes - Apple to share your thoughts with Apple.

tt2

True, movies are locked to an Apple ID, so you also need to ensure that you maintain access to the account. Past purchases carry on working regardless of whether the item is in the store or not. For apps there are other considerations such as iOS moving on when the app stops being developed, but that is a feature of software purchases on all platforms.

tt2

bccs11 wrote:

I get all this. I’m saying it should be made far more clear.

Also if one keeps on buying this content, eventually your going to need a huge amount of storage space.

If you buy DVDs, eventually, you'll need a huge amount of storage space.

Whether I can back up terabytes of data or not and watch on a PC is not really the point here. The average Joe (myself included) would perceive a “purchased movie” to be different from a “rented movie”. Essentially in this case they are the same. At some point both will disappear, only purchasing is usually more expensive.

Once again, movies that you download, will not disappear (unless you delete them). It's disingenuous to compare this to the automatic deletion of rented movies.

I still think my point is valid and may help somebody to better decide whether to buy or rent without reading 800000 pages of terms and conditions.

It's a couple of pages long.

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2

bccs11 wrote:

You may want to think again about ‘Buying’ a film from iTunes.

Recently I discovered (to my loss) that movie purchases from iTunes are in fact only indefinite rentals. I (and I can’t be the only person to miss this fact) believed that if you buy a movie from iTunes (not rent) that the movie purchased would always be available on your account to watch anytime you want, whether that’s on an iPad or Apple TV etc. I have now discovered this is not the case.

At least one of my purchased movies has gone missing. Fortunately (or so I thought) I had kept the receipt. After contacting Apple they could not explain why it was gone, so they gave me “Movie Credits”, which I was told I could use to repurchase the missing film; which is still available. A bit of a pain, but OK.

However those ”Movie Credits” can only be used to buy either a certain TV episode or a certain Music Video! You can’t use that credit to buy a film. So instead of watching a movie that was PURCHASED I now have a wonderful opportunity to watch one episode of a TV series or a Music Video instead. That to me, is useless and no comparison.

I contacted Apple again to complain. The answer I was given was frustrating to say the least. Basically it was this:-

Any movies PURCHASED will only be available for as long as the studio or rights owner allows it to be. If you purchase a movie from iTunes that purchase can be removed at any time and there is nothing that you can do about it, unless you want to purchase that movie again!

So the crunch of this is, purchasing an iTunes movie is merely (not guaranteed though) allowing you to keep and view that movie a little bit longer than renting one. It can (and highly likely will) be removed from your movie collection at any time in the future, at either the whim of the studio or indeed Apple.

I only have around 90+ movies and TV series (quite a lot in terms of cost) and always thought I could keep them until I die! Not the case. Other people no doubt thought they owned a lot more movies/tv series, think again.

I personally will will never buy anything from iTunes again, what’s the point? Back to DVD/Bluray for me.

This issue maybe common knowledge, but for anybody that didn’t realise their entire collection probably will disappear at some stage it may be annoying to say the least. At least knowing the purchases are temporary, you will be able to decide if you want to BUY or not to BUY from iTunes. I hope this saves somebody from wasting their hard earned cash.

And those “purchases” are not transferrable to another person. With a physical DVD you simply hand it over to the person you wish to gift it to. And if you get hit by a bus or die in a fiery plane crash, and nobody else knows your Apple ID and Password, your “purchases” are gone with the wind even if you downloaded them.

It is your responsibility to back up your purchases. There is wording to that effect in the iTunes Store Terms of Sale. If you download the movie to your computer, it won't go away.