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Comment by madrox | Hacker News Reader

> For example Apple allows their users to bring kindle books purchased outside their platform even though they didn't get a 30% cut of sales

They also don't allow you to purchase books within their ecosystem. On PC, you're using Epic's payment platform. Same way you can pay for your kindle books on the web in Amazon's ecosystem and then read them on an iPad.

My point is that weird technical and legal hurdles, when followed lazily, can lead to anti-consumer practices. I don't think it's deflecting from the issue to discuss the underlying technical and legal constraints. It's Hacker News. If you want to rage against Sony for not allowing cross-play go to Polygon.

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> On PC, you're using Epic's payment platform.

I don't see how this is different from Xbox/iOS/PC/Switch all sharing digital purchases. Sony is the only platform that has "legal hurdles" preventing this?

> My point is that weird technical and legal hurdles

I don't think their are any technical challenges unless you insist digital licenses must be sandboxed. Epic has accidentally removed the technical blocks previously.

> It's Hacker News. If you want to rage against Sony for not allowing cross-play go to Polygon.

I'm sorry if it feels like I'm raging but I strongly believe users need to fight for fair digital licensing. Sandboxing purchases feels like a fine technical workaround but I'd prefer platform owners change policy to match users expectations.

> Sony is the only platform that has "legal hurdles" preventing this?

Not all companies "move fast and break things" in legal matters. We don't know the full circumstances, but Sony may have evaluated the landscape and decided the liabilities weren't worth the potential profits, while Nintendo and Microsoft looked at the landscape and decided that the profits exceeded the liabilities in this case.

It's for the same reason that you find Wells Fargo or Facebook committing transgressions that other banks or social media sites may avoid.

> If you want to rage against Sony for not allowing cross-play go to Polygon.

While you might not agree with the other poster, this REALLY isn't the way civil people debate. Don't do this.

> > For example Apple allows their users to bring kindle books purchased outside their platform even though they didn't get a 30% cut of sales > They also don't allow you to purchase books within their ecosystem.

Apple will absolutely let you purchase ebooks within their ecosystem. But if you are selling other people's books, that 30% is likely your entire margin.

Ironically, you can buy real books too, without giving apple a cut (except their portion for the CC tx fees from the bank for Apple Pay)

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