Yet another urgent warning against ‘buying’ movies from app stores and streaming services. Google has unceremoniously removed The Lord of the Rings.
Much to the understandable annoyance of people who bought The Lord of the Rings from Google, it turns out their hard-earned money may have been wasted. Google has simply removed the movie or movies from the libraries of users who had previously ‘purchased’ them.
Unfortunately, this is a phenomenon we are seeing more and more often. Always remember that ‘buying’ something from a streaming provider can be a risky business. Unless you have the actual movie stored as a file on your own system—and can back it up to any NAS or external drive you choose—you don’t truly own it. After all, to watch your ‘purchase’, you will always remain dependent on the streaming provider. And in that case, buying isn’t really buying at all. Investing money in something like that is hardly sensible, although plenty of people apparently still feel comfortable doing so.
Buy Physical Media or DRM-Free Downloads
If you want to ‘really’ own a movie, there is essentially one solution: buy a Blu-ray or DVD in a shop and you’re done. Incidentally, the same applies to music.
Fortunately, things are somewhat better in the music world. Tracks and albums can often be purchased as downloadable files that continue to work outside the provider’s original app. Moreover, this has the considerable advantage that if the company ever goes out of business, it makes no difference whatsoever to your ability to play your purchases. Nor will you suddenly become the victim of licensing disputes being fought out at your expense.
In short, only buy digital media if you can download an actual file to your computer. And even then, preferably only if those downloads are not saddled with complicated DRM protection that still requires occasional contact with the original seller. Otherwise, chances are you’ll also need a dedicated app simply to play what you supposedly ‘own’.
So here’s a little piece of wisdom to remember: with streaming services, you stream—you never buy!