[walterbell]

Scroll past the subscription options to find the full series listing. "Box Set" licensing terminology is as anachronistic as "Seasons", but both are used in Apple TV product listings for non-subscription streaming media purchases.

[Gormo]

I'm not seeing anything anachronistic about either term. "Seasons" is absolutely aligned to the way television series are still produced and distributed. "Box Set" implies physical media. Using the latter term to refer to something else sounds like a case of false advertising.

[walterbell]

Apple offers refunds for unwanted digital purchases, and this description in Apple TV app:

  When you purchase access to this item, you can permanently download it to your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or PC. Once downloaded, you can access this without an internet connection, and Apple can't remove it from your device.

[Gormo]

Wait, so it's actually a standalone, DRM-free download? If that's the case, then while the term is still somewhat misleading, it's considerably less so than I assumed.

[walterbell]

Not DRM free, but unlike most streaming services Apple TV will download purchased media via different countries or VPNs and has no time limit to watch the download. In practice, it "just works". Buying all 4 seasons individually would be 4x$13=$52.

[theK]

I don't see how it qualifies as a legitimate download or ownership. You cannot save the file to a disk you control and you have no way to ensure you have continued access to it. Apple or the IP holder can cause this "download" to dissapear from your device/account without prior warning. Its actually written in the terms.

[walterbell]

Is a monthly subscription better? Few are willing to buy and rip physical media.

[tomjakubowski]

With the advent of digital music, "record album" morphed from referring to the physical medium, to referring to the recording that would be put on it. I think something similar is happening for "box set".

[Gormo]

Not sure I'd agree. "Record album" never specifically referred to anything physical, and just means "collection of recordings", regardless of what medium is used for them.

The term "album" by itself did originally refer to something physical -- a collection of photos bound into a book by a glue made from egg whites ("albumen") -- but the semantic shift to "album" meaning any kind of collection offered as a single unit happened well before "record albums" were a thing.

But the term "box set" has not experienced a comparable semantic shift, and still implies the presence of an actual box.