Words matter
The fight against labeling long-term streaming rentals as “purchases” you “buy”
- New law emboldens complaints against digital content rentals labled as purchases.
Scharon Harding – Aug 29, 2025 5:51 PM
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Words have meaning. Proper word selection is integral to strong communication, whether it’s about relaying one’s feelings to another or explaining the terms of a deal, agreement, or transaction.
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Often, streaming services like Amazon Prime Video offer customers the options to “rent” digital content for a few days or to “buy” it. Some might think that picking “buy” means that they can view the content indefinitely. But these purchases are really just long-term licenses to watch the content for as long as the streaming service has the right to distribute it—which could be for years, months, or days after the transaction.
A lawsuit [PDF] recently filed against Prime Video challenges this practice and accuses the streaming service of misleading customers by labeling long-term rentals as purchases. The conclusion of the case could have implications for how streaming services frame digital content.
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I think the “high water mark” is when we bought CDs with the belief that we could always have the content.
I got burned buying content on cassettes and 8 tracks. Then having to buy the “content” when the player were sent to the technology equivalent of the Google Graveyard.
This is just another instance of the same fraud all over again. And again. And again.
If they said “buy”, then they have stuck themselves with a “deal” they had no intention of fulfilling. To me, that’s fraud!
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