When you purchase a digital copy of a game, movie, or book, what are you really paying for? Most consumers assume they’re purchasing ownership of the game. But as a recent lawsuit against Sony highlights, you don’t actually own the digital copy — you license it.
Apparently, your average gamer and a tech giant’s legal team have different ideas about what entering your credit card information and clicking “buy” actually mean.
The proposed class action lawsuit against Sony alleges that its PlayStation Store misleads consumers by using terms like "Buy" and "Confirm Purchase" without clearly disclosing that buyers are purchasing a revocable license to the game, not actual ownership.
The proposed suit (Heycock v. Sony Interactive Entertainment), filed in the Northern District of California, centers on how companies that sell digital media communicate to consumers what the transaction actually provides.
Sony is not unique in how they do business. Licensing digital content rather than granting digital ownership is a basic industry practice. And with digital purchases now accounting for the majority of game, film, and book sales, physical video games may soon be a relic of the past. A looming all-digital future makes clearly defining ownership rights for digital media even more imperative.
Sony PlayStation Lawsuit: The Software Is Licensed To You, Not Sold
The lawsuit alleges that Sony violated a California consumer protection law requiring digital storefronts to include a “clear and conspicuous” warning before the consumer completes the purchase, explaining that the item is a license and can be revoked, not full ownership. The law applies to digital goods like downloadable video games, movies, e-books, and music.
Sony’s software product license agreement (SPLA) and terms of service do state that consumers are purchasing a temporary, revocable license to access a game file on their servers. But the issue is that this disclosure gets lost in the fine print, which the plaintiffs claim doesn’t meet the “clear and conspicuous” standard under the 2025 California law.
But it gets stickier. The Sony PlayStation terms of service also include an arbitration clause that limits consumers’ ability to sue the company, including by participating in class action lawsuits. However, it’s the judge’s call if the arbitration clause is legally binding. If Heycock v. Sony makes it past this hurdle, the court must decide whether Sony's current disclosure language and checkout process is enough to satisfy the law.
This type of lawsuit isn’t unique to Sony. Consumers have also sued companies like Amazon and Apple after losing access to digital movies or music they "bought.”
Sony’s Defense: A "Reasonable Customer” Would Know
Sony’s attorneys argue a “reasonable consumer” would fully expect that they don’t actually own the game, even if they missed the licensing disclosure in the fine print.
The company’s legal team used two plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Jason Mendoza and Edward Heycock, as an example, explaining that it doesn’t make sense for both individuals to think they owned the same game. Sony’s logic? If Mendoza purchased Resident Evil Requiem on February 14, then Heycock wouldn’t have been able to buy it days later, because Mendoza snatched up the only digital copy of the game in existence.
Sony essentially argues that digital ownership means purchasing the underlying intellectual property. Plaintiffs, meanwhile, argue that gamers clicking the “buy” button think they are getting a durable, transferable ownership right to a particular digital copy. They do not argue that any gamer thinks spending $70 on a game gives them ownership of the game’s IP.
Licensing vs. Ownership
The core distinction between ownership and licensing comes down to permanent property rights versus temporary, conditional access. When you buy a physical item — like a paperback book or a DVD — you own that specific object. You can sell it, lend it to someone, or give it away. But this concept doesn’t always apply word-for-word to digital purchases.
A license is a legal right to use something, but it is not true ownership. The creator or company retains ownership of the work and grants revocable access. While this licensing agreement usually can’t be revoked at any time for any reason, it often has expiration dates and other restrictions.
It’s easy to see why consumers can be misled. Companies use bold “buy now” buttons on their digital storefronts to encourage consumers to complete the sale. You don’t typically see “license now” next to the price of the game you’re eyeballing. Instead, sellers bury the word “license” in long, legally dense terms of service documents they don’t expect you to actually read.
In this sense, licensing a video game is more like a long-term rental than ownership.
What Gamers Should Know About Digital Purchases
- State laws vary. While the law at the core of the Sony lawsuit is a California statute, other states may follow California’s lead or already have their own legal protections. Also, most major sellers of digital goods update their entire U.S. storefront, rather than building separate checkouts for different states and their specific laws.
- Read the disclaimers. And even if you don’t, assume you are renting access at the seller's discretion, unless you have a physical copy.
- Other platforms have already started updating their checkout pages to avoid lawsuits like Sony’s. For example, Steam (operated by Valve) added a disclosure right in the shopping cart warning users that buying a digital game grants a license rather than ownership.
