Earlier on Wednesday, we told you about Sony declaring they’d stop making physical discs for PlayStation games beginning in 2028. They have fully embraced the digital media revolution. So why, then, you might ask, are they also telling customers movies they bought digitally will disappear from their libraries? In the most general sense, it’s because digital ownership isn’t a thing. Unless you have a physical object, you merely have temporary access. But in specific, it’s because Sony lost the rights to Studio Canal titles. That’s 551 movies, just gone from libraries beginning September 1.
This was news last week, which we saw via Kotaku. Sony’s deal for movies Studio Canal owns or distributes—we’re talking things like Terminator 2, Total Recall, and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind—lapsed. Sony’s email to impacted customers called it “content licensing agreements.” Because, if you get right down to it, Sony was never selling you the movie. It was charging you full price for the privilege to watch it until they no longer have the license to do so. Or, more accurately, Sony doesn’t want to pay Studio Canal their asking price for those titles. Sorry, customers.
All the more upsetting, Sony told affected customers “you will no longer be able to access your previously purchased content from Studio Canal, and it will be removed from your video library.” No refund or consolation prize or anything of that nature. Just, sorry Jim, you can’t watch this stuff you paid for. (Your name is Jim in this scenario.)
By this point, you probably don’t me to yet again harp on the importance of physical media ownership. But if you were someone who maybe unwittingly “owned” potentially hundreds of movies that now just suddenly disappear from your library, that’s not just loss a content license agreement, that’s theft. Sony is stealing the thing you paid them for. Now they won’t even give you the option of owning physical game discs either. So what are you to do?
Physical media certainly takes up space, but it takes up space because it’s real and it’s yours. It’s in your home, where you can get to it any time you want to. If you pay $25 for a Blu-ray, you own that Blu-ray until such time as you choose not to have it anymore. And then you know what you can do? You can sell that physical object for real money.
For the complete list of titles affected in the Studio Canal Sony debacle, click here. Then get ready to say “buh bye” to movies like Hot Fuzz, Evil Dead 2, and This Is Spinal Tap.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.