Is Apple tricking iTunes customers?

A federal class-action lawsuit against Apple in California looks like it's set to move forward, now that a judge has denied a request by the iPhone maker to dismiss the suit. US District Court Judge John Mendez in Sacramento appeared sympathetic this week to the argument from plaintiff David Andino that Apple is being too misleading with customers by offering "Buy" and "Rent" options in the iTunes store, for content like TV shows and movies that Apple users then either stream or download after purchase.

Andino's argument is pretty simple. We all know what the "Buy" option actually means. You didn't really just buy that season of Game of Thrones from the iTunes store, the same way that you buy a physical product like a gallon of milk from the grocery store. Once you take that milk home, of course, it's yours to do what you want with it. You can't, however, do whatever you want with that Game of Thrones season you just bought -- such as make copies of it. Really, you're renting it in perpetuity, so as long as you abide by Apple's terms and conditions. And the only difference between "buying" in that scenario and "renting" is that the content will disappear from your device after a period of time under the latter scenario.