Some PlayStation console users expressed frustration with Sony for taking away content that already had been purchased. One user posted on social media that they were expecting a full refund for products bought on the PlayStation. Another wrote that the message from Sony to customers was essentially, “If you ‘purchased’ any of these titles via PlayStation, they are going to disappear soon and too bad for you.”

Sony did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

The erasure of Discovery content has raised questions about what it means to “own” digital products and highlighted how customers are increasingly at the mercy of licensing arrangements between media companies and online stores.

PlayStation Network’s terms of service states that “all content” provided, including on the PlayStation Store, is “licensed on a nonexclusive and revocable basis.”

Users of other streaming services and devices have lobbed similar complaints at companies, including some e-book owners this year who learned that buying an e-book does not really mean it’s theirs.

Automatic e-book updates, which are a common feature of many popular platforms including Amazon’s Kindle Store and Google Play, caused some references and sentences to be changed in the works of popular authors such as Roald Dahl, R.L. Stine and Agatha Christie.