You know how some people like to say that physical media is dead and streaming is the future?  Well, Apple is doing a pretty good job right now of proving that theory well and truly wrong.

Reports have started to emerge of Apple completely deleting films from iTunes accounts even when they’ve been bought, not merely rented.  And when people complain about this, they’re receiving an astonishing message from Apple telling them that iTunes is just a “store front,” and so Apple isn’t to blame if a film studio decides it no longer wants to make its titles available on iTunes.

Even worse, it seems that if bought film titles are removed from your account you may not even be entitled to get a refund for them.  When an iTunes user in Canada complained to Apple that their initial offer of a free $5.99 rental hardly seemed suitable recompense for him having three bought films summarily removed from his account, Apple replied that “our ability to offer refunds diminishes over time.  Hence your purchases doesn’t meet the conditions for a refund.”

The Canadian user was offered a further two free rentals as compensation.  But, of course, as well as being far less in monetary terms than the films user had bought, having short-term rental rights to a film is very different indeed from owning a film.

While I’m hearing from others who fortunately did get a refund for their deleted films, the bottom line in all this is that Apple appears to be openly saying that if you buy a film on iTunes, you don’t really own it at all.  It may only stick around in your iTunes account for as long as the studio who really owns it decides it wants it to stick around in your iTunes account.

The Canadian user suffering this issue was pointed to this page of Apple legalese in the response where he was told that he wasn’t entitled to compensation for his lost purchases.

I’m also starting to receive reports today of the recent return of another major issue with iTunes movies: the downgrading of 4K HDR films to HD.  This started happening in 2017, just after the Apple TV 4K launched, as reported here.  At that point Apple suggested that there was some sort of labeling issue (where films said they were HD on their header page, but played as 4K) that they managed to (largely) fix.  And it seems that the return of this issue may still be responsible for some of the “lost” 4K movies Apple TV 4K users are seeing now.

This doesn’t seem to explain all of the 4K to HD switches, though.  It seems that some are down to Apple’s original policy of offering free HD to 4K upgrades of films no longer applying to titles bought in HD outside of iTunes.  Say, via the iTunes-compatible Movies Anywhere platform.  Though I am recently hearing from people saying that films bought on other iTunes-compatible platforms in 4K are also now only appearing in HD on iTunes.

In fact, I have even been contacted just today by an iTunes user who tells me that dozens of films he owns in iTunes — many of which were actually bought in iTunes — have stepped back on his Apple TV 4K to HD, having previously being available in 4K.  This includes titles that are still available in 4K on VUDU.

It’s worth noting that the specific incident of films being completely deleted I refer to in this article happened in Canada; it’s possible that iTunes users in the U.S. and elsewhere haven’t experienced the same issue (yet…) due to differences in film rights between different territories.

But actually these sorts of regional rights differences merely underline the fundamental point Apple seems to be doing its best to confirm right now: That the only way you can be sure you own anything is if you’re physically holding it in your hand.

I’ve asked Apple for comment on these iTunes issues, and will provide an update if they come back with anything worth sharing.  In the meantime, though, if you’ve experienced either films you bought disappearing entirely from iTunes, or films that once appeared in 4K now only appearing in HD, please let me know (with details, if possible, of whether you bought the title from within iTunes or via another compatible platform) via the Twitter account shown at the bottom of this article.

You don’t own anything that has DRM – not movies, not ebooks, nothing.

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