> However, the app has remained available but not fully functional in various places, leaving customers wondering if they will still be able to access content they bought. This development, however, mostly squashes any remaining hope of salvaging those purchases.
If you depend on an online service (and or/app) to consume content that was 'bought', you don't really own it and this shouldn't be a surprise. I don't suspect anyone is shocked by this, but rather how soon this happened which they likely estimated would have been much later.
e.g. I use cloud storage services for backup only, I don't delete my local data assuming the service will always be available to me.
I feel that online media stores should be barred from putting a [Buy $9.99] button next to [Rent $3.99]. Maybe use [Rent 48 hours $3.99] and [Subscribe Indefinitely* $9.99].
*Your content subscription has no set expiry date but is subject to copy protection and requires Internet connectivity to our licensing check servers.
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[ 2.0 ms ] story [ 14.1 ms ] threadSee also:
Microsoft turns off PlaysForSure DRM servers. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2008/04/drm-s...
HBO Max stops working on GNU/Linux https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/08/hbo-max-cranks-up-th...
Web Environment Integrity API (DRM for web) https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/07/googles-web-integrit...
If you depend on an online service (and or/app) to consume content that was 'bought', you don't really own it and this shouldn't be a surprise. I don't suspect anyone is shocked by this, but rather how soon this happened which they likely estimated would have been much later.
e.g. I use cloud storage services for backup only, I don't delete my local data assuming the service will always be available to me.
*Your content subscription has no set expiry date but is subject to copy protection and requires Internet connectivity to our licensing check servers.