Sony pulls 551 'purchased' films from PlayStation libraries — again

Sony is deleting 551 movies and TV series from PlayStation Store users’ libraries on September 1, blaming a licensing agreement lapse with distributor StudioCanal. Customers who paid for these titles get no refund and no recourse — just a notification and a link to the list of content being removed. This is a recurring pattern: Sony wiped hundreds of movies from German and Austrian accounts in 2022 over the same distributor, and hundreds of Discovery TV episodes from US accounts in 2023 after the Warner Bros. merger unwound a licensing deal.

The core issue is the gap between what buyers think they’re getting and what the terms of service actually grant. A ‘purchase’ on these storefronts is a revocable license, not ownership, and that distinction is buried in EULAs almost nobody reads. The article argues the obfuscation is deliberate — Sony collects full purchase-price money while keeping customers unaware that access can be revoked at any time, a structure that also applies to digitally ‘bought’ games.

The piece highlights the legal hypocrisy in a system where studios claim billions in piracy ‘losses’ from copying that removes nothing from them, while reserving the right to revoke content people paid for. It cites F.B.T. Productions v. Aftermath Records, where a court found that transfers reserving reclamation rights and withholding title are licenses, not sales. With consumer-protection enforcement weakened, the author expects no accountability and recommends buyers acquire physical or downloadable media and self-host it via Jellyfin or Plex to retain durable access.