What They Say
There’s a growing swell of discontent in Germany and Austria, where Sony has notified purchasers of movies from Studio Canal on the PlayStation Store that access to them will be removed at the end of August. There are over 300 affected titles including English and German language from Shaun the Sheep to Death Wish.
At press time there appeared to be no plans to refund purchases or allow transfer to the equivalent of the US rights controllers like Movies Anywhere or UltraViolet (which closed in 2019).
The store has not been taking new purchases since last summer.
What We Think
Oh, dear. Sony has a way of upsetting the internet. When UltraViolet closed, most of the content was still available through the original retailer, but with the Sony closure, your ‘purchase’ disappears. German consumers and representative organisations must be seething about this change and I would expect some legal complaints.
I would have thought that the way out of this for Sony was to rebate to purchasers the difference between the rental and purchase costs. (BR)
