Isn't it time for a big lawsuit against some large ISPs (like Verizon) for allowing Sony to scam people like that?
If there are 2 people scammed, Sony can get away with a warning, but if there is 3th - they should disconnect all Sony related servers from the internet.
That should be fair.
The point is that one side can "legally" do that the other can not (in most countries). It's really not about the technical side of it, but the legal one.
I think GP's sardonic point was that this sort of thing is more analogous to actual piracy than torrenting is -- people are actually being deprived of things they purchased here.
Or depending on the facts maybe closer to fraud in many jurisdictions. If Sony knew that they didn't have the right to allow customers to watch the content perpetually, but they intentionally deceived them by using words like 'purchase' to make them think they did, then perhaps in many jurisdictions this would be intentional deception to secure unlawful gain, i.e. fraud, on a massive scale.
If this was a genuine mistake on Sony's part, and not intentional deception maybe it is more a civil product liability matter (as long as they refund customers) rather than a criminal one.
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods.(1)
This term was coopted by the MAFIAA because literal descriptions such as file sharing or unauthorized copying are not objectionable to the general public who see them as minor / insignificant and thus are not sensational enough to draw the outrage needed to enact disproportionate criminal penalties(3) and thus preserve their monopolistic(2) profits.
The figurative IP rights infringement sense of the word "piracy" is over 250 years old.
Source: OED [1],
2. fig. The appropriation and reproduction of an invention or work of another for one's own profit, without authority; infringement of the rights conferred by a patent or copyright.
1771 Luckombe Hist. Print. 76 They..would suffer by this act of piracy, since it was likely to prove a very bad edition.
"Your honor, the act of downloading a movie creates a new copy of it, and if the value of this movie is as much as the prosecutor claims, downloading creates value."
The word "piracy" is only applicable to sketchy businesses who profit off someone else's work without permission.