'This should be illegal': Sony is deleting over 500 movies that people bought from their digital libraries — just proving further why 4K Blu-ray's popularity keeps growing | Tech Radar

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'This should be illegal': Sony is deleting over 500 movies that people bought from their digital libraries — just proving further why 4K Blu-ray's popularity keeps growing

'Play has no limits,' Sony says, as it stops people playing TV shows and movies they paid to own

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Hundreds of TV episodes and movies will be removed from Play Station Store accounts on 1 September

One of the best things about Blu-ray discs is that you don't need to worry that Sony will sneak into your home in the middle of the night and take them away.

Unfortunately you can't say the same about digital purchases: Sony is scrubbing hundreds of movies and TV show episodes purchased on the Play Station Store from people's collections with no compensation. Come September, they're gone.

The list of affected movies and shows is on the Sony website and includes the remastered Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Gomorrah, the Rambo movies and many more. The problem is the end of a licensing agreement between Sony and Studio Canal, a major producer and distributor of movies and shows.

As Sony explains, from September 1, 2026, "you will no longer be able to access your previously purchased content from Studio Canal, and it will be removed from your video library."

To add insult to injury, the notification ends with the Play Station slogan: "Play has no limits".

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As you can imagine, this has gone down very well with movie fans.

This is either a shot of Sony hunting down the movies you thought you owned to eliminate them from your account, or it's the start of Terminator 2 (one of the affected movies) (Image credit: Studio Canal)

Sony's arrangement with the film production company Studio Canal has ended, and that means Sony no longer has the rights to sell those TV shows and movies. The fact that people have bought them is irrelevant to Sony, because in the terms and conditions that absolutely nobody reads it says that you're buying a license to view a show or movie, not to own it.

Since the news broke, my social media has been full of people saying the same thing: Sony's move is a pretty great advert for digital piracy. And it's definitely upset a lot of movie fans, such as Quelonious on r/movies who vowed: "I will never buy streaming movies again", although that poster is sticking with Blu-ray rather than flying a pirate flag.

"If I were you I wouldn't make digital purchases for movies," Rewdyroo writes on the same subreddit, noting that "you aren't buying the movie. It functions more like a lease and if the license for the movie that whatever service you bought it from runs out your digital movie also goes away, no refund. I've had it happen on Amazon and will never purchase a digital movie again."

Mildmichigan spoke for many: "This should be illegal. If I buy something digitally, and the platform loses distribution rights or whatever then I should be grandfathered in."

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Criterion 4K Blu-rays are 50% off again at Amazon and Barnes & Noble — don't miss this sale!

We've discussed this before, because it's a key reason to keep buying Blu-rays: Blu-rays are yours forever. But it's an issue with all kinds of digital media, going back to the days of Microsoft's Plays For Sure digital music, which sold audio files that died when Microsoft shut down the servers. Whether it's a streaming catalog or GTA 6, if it's not on physical media you can't ever be sure that it's yours forever.

(Is now a good time to mentioned the Criterion's 4K Blu-rays are 50% off at the moment in the US?)

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Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than twenty books. Her latest, a love letter to music titled Small Town Joy, is on sale now. She is the singer in spectacularly obscure Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind.

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News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest computing gadgets
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Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards