Sad day for movies purchased on iTunes :o(

[TimmuJapan]

I don't want physical DVD's or Blu-Rays taking up space in my house. I know many love it, but I just don't. So I want it digitally. Sadly in Denmark, it's illegal to rip your own purchased movies, as you need to bypass encryption, which is a no-go. If it weren't, I would purchase physical, rip them, and then store the physical media in boxes.

So the only choice I have, is to purchase digitally.

You don’t need to have DVDs or bluerays. Someone else above suggested this too, but what you need is an external HDD or an external SSD that is high volume capacity, or a few drives in your case since it is 500 movies. You have to download all of your movies from the cloud to this drive, and then Apple can’t take them away from you. This isnt illegal anywhere. It only would be illegal if you removed the copy protection from the movie after you downloaded it, so you could also watch it on non-Apple devices.

I was someone who was in the situation of changing country stores because of relocating. When I did, I lost all of my iTunes movies, so I had to change back to the original country store to get the movies back, then download all the movies to an external drive, and then finally go back to the new country store. Once you download the The movies to a drive, those movies will always be associated with your Apple ID account, so even if you lose cloud access to those movies for whatever reason, you’ll still have a physical copy downloaded, and you’ll always be able to watch it. It’s really annoying and unfair that Apple (or whatever entity) puts customers in a situation where they are forced to buy a large capacity external drives to preserve their movies, but that’s just what happens now.

The external drive(s) will not take up very much space in your house. Below is a picture of mine. It is an external SSD 1TB. All my Apple movies are there. If you have 500 movies, 5 or 6 TB should be enough storage for 500 Apple movies. And you may consider getting a few drives that are each 2TB or 3TB. An external HDD will be cheaper, and if you take care of it, it will last a long time. An External SSD will be faster, will also last a long time if you take care of it, but it will be more expensive.

 

[justdanyul]

Just out of coriousity, how big a problem is this? I've never encounted it on a purchaced movie on iTunes. Ofcourse, on the streaming services, I seen content I enjoy come and go, but I have never lost a purchaced item (if i did, I would feel totally entitled to get another copy for free, by what ever means available on the internet 😇)

 

[headlessmike]

well here in Kenya its still visible and playable

It's still here in Sweden, too. Time for snowatom to move north!

 

[tothemoonsands]

Here you go: https://www.kaleidescape.com/

You purchase the movies and download them to local storage (they're encrypted), so they're there to stay and you can watch them whenever you want. These are usually 1:1 copies of Blu Rays when it comes to quality, so better than any of the streaming services. They have contracts with the studios and sometimes get their own copy from a master which can be even better than physical disc quality. Of course the download size is much, much larger too. It comes with an initial investment for the player and some storage which goes up to 72TB on the Terra Movie Server. Of course you can use multiple if 72TB is not enough. Keep in mind these usually go into full blown home theater systems, so for someone just watching on a normal TV, the initial cost might be a little too much. But if you're a movie lover, it might be a worthwhile investment. Be sure to check what you want to watch, not every movie is available. They do have over 14000 movies though.

FYI: $25k for the 72TB. Not including the player. For that, imagine how many UHD Blu-Rays one could buy? Approximately 1,000, if not more - certainly more than you could store on that single 72TB device. The economics are not there for 99.99999% of people. This is solely intended for personal movie theaters of the highest caliber were cost is no matter, and the owner is likely not even aware of the name of the system, let alone how it works. They just want whatever is "the best of the best" / state-of-the-art with their shiny new $500,000 home theater set up.

 

[Danfango]

This is why I steal all my movies 🤣

 

[usagora]

It doesn’t matter where you source your digital content from - unless you have a copy sitting locally, it’s always at risk of vanishing.

However, it is poor form for Apple not to warn purchasers before this happens so they can download a local copy if they haven't already.

But yes, this is why I prefer physical media.

 

[GrumpyCoder]

FYI: $25k for the 72TB. Not including the player. For that, imagine how many UHD Blu-Rays one could buy? Approximately 1,000, if not more - certainly more than you could store on that single 72TB device. The economics are not there for 99.99999% of people. This is solely intended for personal movie theaters of the highest caliber were cost is no matter, and the owner is likely not even aware of the name of the system, let alone how it works. They just want whatever is "the best of the best" / state-of-the-art with their shiny new $500,000 home theater set up.

The price is really between you and your dealer, the Terra Movie Server with 72TB is $23,995, but can be much less street.

Anyway, this is not the point of such a system. The OP and many other people, including myself, prefer to have source material stored in a central location. I did the disc game back in the laserdisc days, then in the early DVD days when it became annoying and other solutions started to show up. It became unacceptable in the Blu Ray days. The whole point of such a system is convenience. When friends/family come over and decide to watch something, it's a pain to stand in front shelves with 1000+ discs and find something to watch everyone agrees on. Search by what? Title, director, actor, genre, etc.? It's all just a push of a button. Cover, synopsis or even watch a trailer before deciding on a movie and pressing play. It's so easy with such a system, but a pain with physical discs.
In addition, multiple players can be used, all having access to the full library. So movies can be watched simultaneously in the theater, living room, media room, kids rooms, etc.

One thing I personally love is the ability to script demo scenes. When people come over to evaluate speakers or projectors because they're interested in buying something new. With a push of a button, prescripted scenes can be played for various movies, no looking for discs and flipping them in the player, no jumping chapters and such things.

It can also easily be integrated into overall control. When the movie starts, the lights dim. Or the screen masking is automatically adjusted to the aspect ratio of the movie and so on. Sure, this can be done with a physical disc player as well, but it's much, much more effort to do so plus additional cost that can be put towards such a system.

Also, I know many people using these on systems nowhere near $500k. I'd say it starts at around $30k for the whole system, but the sky is the limit... you can easily buy a Barco Thor or Christie Ecplise for $500k+ and then only have a projector and nothing else. Yet some people run it on $6k JVC N5 and it works just as well.

In the end, this is a solution for movie lovers that value quality and comfort and for many it's worth the initial investment.

 

[IllinoisCorn]

You don't actually own the movie unless you download it to your hard drive and keep it there. Everything that it kept in the cloud is subject to removal. So in a nutshell, you're only renting the right to watch the movie while it is still available on the cloud.

If you don't want this to happen again, I'd download every movie to a very large hard drive (you'll need it).

Apple must maintain the license to rent/sell the movie in order for it to remain in the cloud. They can and will drop movies to make room for new titles and when the distributor no longer wants them to distribute the movie. Please note that is true for any movie that you purchase from any site in the world that you don't physically download a copy of... not just Apple.

You want an actual movie archive, you need to store the content yourself at your expense, not rely on a third party.

Happens with music from Apple Music as well.

It's insidious and rarely talked about.

 

[Moonlight]

This is why I burn everything I own onto Sony MiniDiscs!! No exceptions.

 

[rgwebb]

B-bu-but, they told me "you'll own nothing and you'll be happy!"

 

[lm57400]

Of course also heard already about this licensing model, but didn't really think that they will actually delete media. So you really have to download everything... and hope that this will still work after they removed something from the store. Hope this doesn't apply to apps and games.

And: in such cases Apple should really contact you and announce that the media will be a) removed or b) to just give you your money back.

At the end it really shouldn't be the customers problem. Nobody reads license texts. If there is a "buy" button, then this is buying = owning something.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

I have 500+ movies bought on iTunes, and this has never happened before. But now it did.

The movie (Stand-up show) "Tom Wilson: Bigger Than You" has been removed.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/tom-wilson-bigger-than-you/id1551101668

I could maybe understand a movie no longer being able for purchase, but why remove from peoples purchased movie library.

I have heard of this before, but never experienced it myself, as many reasons for people losing movies are often caused by:

1. Hidden the movie by mistake
2. Moved Apple ID to another country, where movies isn't available
3. Didn't really purchase the movie on iTunes, but Vudu or moviesanywere linked to iTunes.

But in my case, the movie was bought on the Danish iTunes Store, but it's gone from every country store on iTunes.

Sad sad sad..

I have multiple movies that are no longer available for purchase, but none have ever completely disappeared.

That said, I also have all of them downloaded to local copies on a computer in my house, just in case.

 

[Andrew73875]

I didn't encounter this issue.

However, as was mentioned here, this happens due to the fact that companies have to get licenses for distribution in different countries. Many of them are signed for a limited period of time and have to be renegotiated.

Sometimes, other legal technicalities happen. For example, the rights can be sold to another company, so streaming services have to negotiate with the new right holder. Sometimes it happens only in certain jurisdictions. That's why certain movies can disappear in one country and can still be available in another.

Same happens with music streaming. Songs which were available before can become "grey out" in the library due to the licensing issues.

Of course the most reliable way is to download all the content you bought. On the other hand, the whole point of the cloud services is to avoid all the clutter of external hard drives, CDs and DVDs.

 

[julesme]

I have 500+ movies bought on iTunes, and this has never happened before. But now it did.

The movie (Stand-up show) "Tom Wilson: Bigger Than You" has been removed.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/tom-wilson-bigger-than-you/id1551101668

I could maybe understand a movie no longer being able for purchase, but why remove from peoples purchased movie library.

I have heard of this before, but never experienced it myself, as many reasons for people losing movies are often caused by:

1. Hidden the movie by mistake
2. Moved Apple ID to another country, where movies isn't available
3. Didn't really purchase the movie on iTunes, but Vudu or moviesanywere linked to iTunes.

But in my case, the movie was bought on the Danish iTunes Store, but it's gone from every country store on iTunes.

Sad sad sad..

Are you sure the movie is gone in "every country store?" I'm seeing "Tom Wilson: Bigger Than You" when I search for it in the Apple TV app (in the US). It costs $6.99 to purchase. It is 64 minutes long.

 

[Apple_Robert]

When I found out I couldn't download the 4K movies I had purchased, I stopped buying any more from Apple. I have since set up my own Infuse server with 500+ movies and plenty of t.v. shows. I should be able to download 4K movies for my 4K t.v.

 

[Bonte]

I have 500+ movies bought on iTunes, and this has never happened before. But now it did.

The movie (Stand-up show) "Tom Wilson: Bigger Than You" has been removed.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/tom-wilson-bigger-than-you/id1551101668

I could maybe understand a movie no longer being able for purchase, but why remove from peoples purchased movie library.

I have heard of this before, but never experienced it myself, as many reasons for people losing movies are often caused by:

1. Hidden the movie by mistake
2. Moved Apple ID to another country, where movies isn't available
3. Didn't really purchase the movie on iTunes, but Vudu or moviesanywere linked to iTunes.

But in my case, the movie was bought on the Danish iTunes Store, but it's gone from every country store on iTunes.

Sad sad sad..

Did you get your money back?

 

[tothemoonsands]

The price is really between you and your dealer, the Terra Movie Server with 72TB is $23,995, but can be much less street.

Anyway, this is not the point of such a system. The OP and many other people, including myself, prefer to have source material stored in a central location. I did the disc game back in the laserdisc days, then in the early DVD days when it became annoying and other solutions started to show up. It became unacceptable in the Blu Ray days. The whole point of such a system is convenience. When friends/family come over and decide to watch something, it's a pain to stand in front shelves with 1000+ discs and find something to watch everyone agrees on. Search by what? Title, director, actor, genre, etc.? It's all just a push of a button. Cover, synopsis or even watch a trailer before deciding on a movie and pressing play. It's so easy with such a system, but a pain with physical discs.
In addition, multiple players can be used, all having access to the full library. So movies can be watched simultaneously in the theater, living room, media room, kids rooms, etc.

One thing I personally love is the ability to script demo scenes. When people come over to evaluate speakers or projectors because they're interested in buying something new. With a push of a button, prescripted scenes can be played for various movies, no looking for discs and flipping them in the player, no jumping chapters and such things.

It can also easily be integrated into overall control. When the movie starts, the lights dim. Or the screen masking is automatically adjusted to the aspect ratio of the movie and so on. Sure, this can be done with a physical disc player as well, but it's much, much more effort to do so plus additional cost that can be put towards such a system.

Also, I know many people using these on systems nowhere near $500k. I'd say it starts at around $30k for the whole system, but the sky is the limit... you can easily buy a Barco Thor or Christie Ecplise for $500k+ and then only have a projector and nothing else. Yet some people run it on $6k JVC N5 and it works just as well.

In the end, this is a solution for movie lovers that value quality and comfort and for many it's worth the initial investment.

I appreciate the in-depth response, and I definitely learned a lot from it. I guess my main point is that the system is way overpriced. All of those features you describe can be achieved for far less in a DIY setup, not to mention many additional features. Custom pre-movie trailers, webhooks to run any automations you want, local/remote playback with wider device compatibility, etc.

One honest question: Given that the titles on Terra are DRM’d, what happens if the company goes out of business? It would just be a matter of time until the collection is unusable right? If that’s true, in some ways it could be considered safer storing a collection in the cloud with Apple than a specialty high-end AVR business. Apple is more likely to be around in 10-20+ years, not to mention they’ve been automatically upgrading owned titles to better formats like 4K, Dolby Atmos, etc.

 

[eddjedi]

This is why I don't stream music or movies, I like to 'own' things even if only digitally. Anything that is served to you on the fly can be taken away without warning. I personally use Plex Media Server and a 6TB external drive with 1000+ HD & UHD movies on it. It's a very similar experience to Netflix etc but using your own media.

On a side note my reason for not streaming music is the pathetic returns it gives to artists, but that's for another thread

 

[eddjedi]

Just to add to the above, if you're worried about quality and file size, a decent 1080p movie is about 4GB, and a decent UHD movie is about 18GB. So although size is a consideration, you can still store many hundreds/thousands on an external HD, and there's not that many movies I want to watch more than once.

 

[snowatom]

Here you go: https://www.kaleidescape.com/

Not an option in Denmark.

 

[snowatom]

Did you get your money back?

No. Apple said it's not in their control, and I should contact the Copyright owner. This I did 3 of May, 2022. But I haven't heard anything yet.

 

[snowatom]

It's still here in Sweden, too. Time for snowatom to move north!

Are you sure? You can't trust search engines like justwatch or cheap charts, they haven't updated yet. It still shows up as available in Denmark. But when looking directly in the Danish iTunes store, it's not available.

 

[GrumpyCoder]

Not an option in Denmark.

It is an option, you just don't have access via the website. Contact the distributor directly:
CSN Teknik
Rypevaenget 7
Teppernoeje, 4733
+45 60888030
christian@csn-teknik.dk

Vi bygger hjemmebiografer og AV Løsninger - CSN-Teknik.dk

Vi er leveringsdygtige i alle former for HiFi, hjemmebiograf oplevelser og skræddersyede AV løsninger. Vi lever og ånder for hjemmebiografer.

csn-teknik.dk

They'll take care of your hjemmebiografer needs.

 

[Boyd01]

Hope this doesn't apply to apps and games.

That is a little different, because you always download apps to your computer. Apple definitely does remove old versions of software from the app store, but you *should* be able to re-download them in the future if you previously purchased. However, that might not always be the case now...

Apple Seemingly Removing 'Outdated' Apps From the App Store

Apple appears to be removing a large number of apps from the App Store that have not been updated for "a significant amount of time" (via The...

www.macrumors.com

 

[progx]

I’ve never had a movie disappear from my collection, TV shows on the other hand… at least they gave me a credit when it was pulled.

From my understanding, if the movie disappears (from the country you purchased it), you would get a refund (partial) or credit into your account. All my movies are there. However, I have switched back to physical since a digital copy is included for the same price.