ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (WHAT THE TECH?) — Redbox used to be the place to go for renting DVDs but their parent company filed for bankruptcy last month.

Redbox, which dominated the DVD rental market for years, has removed its app from Roku devices along with the content its customers purchased. The smartphone apps and website aren’t working either.

The bottom line: If you purchased a movie to stream over the Redbox app, you don’t have it any longer. Because you never owned the movie in the first place.

Purchasing a movie on Amazon Prime, Apple, or Google isn’t like buying a DVD. You’re only purchasing a license to watch it.

If the company goes belly up, like Redbox, the license expires and you lose the ability to watch the movie you ‘bought’.

If the company’s agreement with a movie studio ends, your purchased movie will disappear.

For example, if you pay $25 on Amazon Prime to purchase Twisters, you can watch it as many times as you’d like. But if Amazon’s deal with Universal Pictures expires, the $25 movie will be deleted from your Amazon library.

You also won’t own it if you decide at some point to cancel your Amazon Prime subscription.

Buying just means licensing or leasing. However, most wouldn’t know that without reading the terms of the agreement.

If you rented a DVD from Redbox before the kiosks stopped working you have no way to return it.

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