Sony is wiping digital content from libraries, a reminder that you don’t own what you’re buying

Sony recently reported PlayStation customers in the UK have announced that they will no longer be able to watch films and shows previously purchased from production and distribution company StudioCanal. As of September 1, affected customers will no longer be able to stream 551 titles from the PlayStation Store.

In a legal notice first spotted by gaming news outlet PlayStation LifeStyle, Sony said affected customers will lose the ability to stream titles including Rage: The Way of the Yakuza, Paddington, Paddington 2, Pan’s maze, Rambo 3, Terminator 2: Judgment Dayand Boy in striped pajamas “Because of our content licensing agreements.”

Starting in September, Sony will remove any affected titles purchased by UK users from their PlayStation library, according to the notice.

Sony will likely still strike a deal with StudioCanal by September 1, or even later, allowing users to continue watching content they’ve purchased. This happened in 2023, when Sony said it would have to pull 1,318 seasons of Discovery shows from customers’ libraries. A few weeks after its announcement, Sony said it would not pull the content because it had updated its licensing arrangements with Discovery.

However, affected customers should not keep their hopes too high. Sony has already pulled 314 StudioCanal titles from libraries in Germany and Austria in 2022. Recently, Sony deleted people’s Funimation digital libraries after it decided to merge the anime streaming service with Crunchyroll. Sony also scaled back its digital store and stopped selling movie and show rentals and purchases in August 2021. Even if StudioCanal were willing to make a deal with Sony, it’s possible that Sony would be less interested in keeping digital titles than before.

Regardless, the incident is a reminder that we don’t own the things we buy digitally. Instead, digital rentals and purchases are just long-term licenses that are only valid as long as the streaming service has the right to distribute said content. Often, this is a limited amount of time.

However, Sony’s announcement frustrated some, including those who believe Sony should offer refunds or who believe digital stores should stop using terms like “purchase” for long-term rentals.

This story originally appeared on Ars Technica.