⚠️ You don't own the movies you bought

Welcome to a fabulous Thursday, {{first_name | friend}}. Let’s talk oopsies, the kind that make your stomach drop. Ever hit delete and instantly regret it? Imagine doing that with an entire movie. During Toy Story 2’s production, someone ran a rogue command and wiped out 90% of the film’s files. We’re talking two years of character models, scenes, animations, poof! Gone in a split second.

🧸 Pixar checked their backup system. Corrupted. Useless. They were staring at a $100 million disaster and a release date that wasn’t moving. Unbelievable.

🎬 How did they save the movie? A) Steve Jobs himself reversed the command, B) They started over, and everyone on the team animated 80 hours a week, C) They found a dusty backup tape labeled “misc stuff” under someone’s desk, or D) An employee on maternity leave had a copy on her home computer. The answer is worth the wait. It’s at the end.

☀️ Summer is closer than you think: ImproveLife GLP-1 Support is in stock right now. No wait lists. No back orders. It helps you feel satisfied longer and supports your metabolism without injections or extremes. Get up to 30% off, free shipping and a free gift.** 

February’s daily $250 Amazon Gift Card giveaway continues, and today could be your lucky day. You see, every day this month one subscriber to this newsletter will win a $250 Amazon gift card. Scan the top of this email for a big red claim button. See it? You won. Nothing? You did not win. Maybe tomorrow. — Kim

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⚡ TL;DR (THE SHORT VERSION)

📖 Read time: 2.5 minutes.

You’ve got a hundred movies on Apple TV. Paid $15, $20 or more each. Maybe $1,500 worth of films you think you own. Except you don’t. So many people don’t know that all you bought was a revocable license to stream them until a licensing deal dies. Then your purchase dies with it.

Sony told PlayStation customers it was deleting over 1,300 Discovery shows from their libraries, including ones they’d paid for. Sony walked that back, but the mask slipped. 

Apple and Amazon Prime folks have watched movies vanish with no refund. Ubisoft killed the game The Crew entirely and disabled the download button, so even people who already paid couldn’t reinstall it. 

Steam’s terms say your games are licensed, not sold. Amazon says it can’t be held liable if digital content becomes unavailable. Apple says you’re responsible for backing up content, though copyright protections make it impossible to back up 4K movies.

California’s AB 2426 makes digital stores admit you’re buying a license, not a product. Big Tech didn’t want two different stores, so now everyone nationwide sees the warning. That’s one win.

Since buying digital is renting with extra steps, you might as well rent. A $6 rental hurts less than a $20 purchase that vanishes.

Better yet, watch for free. Tubi, Pluto TV, Freevee, YouTube and the Roku Channel have thousands of movies with ads. The catch? These services track every show you watch, how long you watch, when you pause, what you skip, then they sell that data to advertisers and brokers.  

If you truly want to own something:

I wasn’t sure that Netflix would ever find success producing their own content. Then again, Stranger Things have happened. (lol)

📣 Share this: Know someone with hundreds of purchased movies or games? Share this before their library disappears. Use the Facebook, X, LinkedIn or email icons below.

Jim from Indiana talks to his AI companion Mia nearly nonstop. He tells me how he found out the real woman behind the bot is wanted by police. Plus: Why the Magnificent Seven shrunk to the Fab Four, ChatGPT to show ads, and five apps selling your moves.

Listen on Komando.com →

🎧 Or search “Komando” wherever you get your podcasts. I’m everywhere.

🫆 High tech manhunt: The search for Nancy Guthrie, 84-year-old mother of Today's Savannah Guthrie, is being helped by tech. She vanished from her Arizona home without her phone, smartwatch, wallet, keys and medication. Investigators are pulling records from 41 cell towers within a 3-mile radius to track any device movement. Over 200 license plate readers are being scanned for vehicles in the area during the critical window. Doorbell cameras and home security footage from neighbors are under review. Her iPhone and Apple Watch, even sitting untouched, could reveal motion sensor data, Wi-Fi connections, and the last time it moved. Her home router logs which devices connected and when. And here's one most people don't think about, her pacemaker. It syncs with her phone via Bluetooth, and those timestamps could help pinpoint when something went wrong. This is modern detective work, your devices remember everything.

🪤 Terminal mistake trap: They’re at it again. Scammers are buying Google ads for searches like Mac cleaner and clear cache macOS. The links look harmless, pointing to Google Docs or Medium. But instead they bounce you to a fake Apple help page. That tells you to paste a Terminal command, which quietly installs software that can give someone remote access. PSA: They’re coming after Windows next. 

Update turned downgrade: Apple dropped iOS 26.2.1 with AirTag 2 support and bug fixes. But some of you got an unwanted bonus like apps crashing, lag, flaky connections and battery drain so bad you’d think your iPhone was mining crypto. Apple’s staying quiet, shocking no one. My bet? A patch is coming soon. Maybe hold off updating if your phone’s still behaving.

Pixel-perfect flips: The Winter Olympics are here, and the tech is wild. Google built a computer-vision AI for U.S. Ski & Snowboard that maps 3D motion from regular video, tracking speed, angles, rotations, then it flags tiny technique flaws coaches would miss (paywall link). It’s already helping half-pipe star Maddie Mastro nail her “crippler” and double cork 1080. That’s two flips and three spins in one jump. I can barely walk on ice.

🏈 Dad DMs: Tom Brady is shockingly relatable for a guy with seven Super Bowl rings and a supermodel ex. His 16-year-old son, Benny, exposed his dad’s Instagram habit: constantly DMing him motivational quotes like every text is a halftime speech. Classic father-son dynamic gone digital. Benny sends goofy videos, Brady fires back with life lessons. Dads gonna dad. Mine used to slip Wall Street Journal articles into my lunch box. I was 8.

Musk wanted you to stay online longer, so the safety guardrails came down. When the AI started crossing the line, the cost became clear. Listen now

Listen on Komando.com →

🎧 Or search “Komando” wherever you get your podcasts. I’m everywhere.

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Ever lose your place on a web page that goes on forever? Maybe you’re hunting for the return policy buried in novel-length terms of service. Press Ctrl + F on Windows or Cmd + F on Mac and type what you’re looking for, like “refund.” Hit Ctrl + G to jump to the next result or Ctrl + Shift + G to go back. Beats scrolling through 47 pages of legal jargon to find out you’re stuck with that air fryer.

Chrome takes the wheel: AI isn’t just chatting anymore, it’s clicking around your browser like it owns the place. Google’s new Gemini Auto Browse lets AI do tasks across your open tabs. Ask it to fill out forms, shop for items based on a photo or compare prices. It opens pages, types in fields and drops things in your cart. AI Pro and Ultra subscribers, click the Gemini icon in the top right to try it. Don’t be surprised when a package shows up and you have no idea who ordered it.

Train your email: When something looks phishy, report it, so Gmail or Outlook learns to catch similar junk. In Gmail: Open the message > More > Report phishing. In Outlook: Select the email > Report > Report phishing. And hey, while you’re training those filters, make sure my newsletter keeps landing in your inbox. Forward it, reply or mark it “not spam.” Every click helps. Thank you!

💳 Guard your cards: You wouldn’t leave your wallet on a park bench and hope for the best. Letting your browser save your credit card info is even riskier. When a site asks to save your card, say no. Then open your browser Settings and turn off Save and fill payment methods or Save and autofill payment info. While you’re there, delete any cards already stored. ICYMI, here are my online banking tips to keep you safe.

📝 Tax season is open season for hackers: Think about what you’re uploading when you file, your SSN, bank account number, home address, all in one tidy package. If your connection isn’t locked down, you might as well cc the hackers. I use ExpressVPN to encrypt my financial data, so my refund goes to me, not some guy in a basement. Secure your data and get 4 extra months.*

Need a sound boost? Before you buy new headphones, try the free Volume Master extension from the Chrome Web Store. You can crank the sound up to 600% with a slider, plus there are toggles for clearer voices and a bass boost for music. After adding to Chrome, right-click the new icon > Pin for quick access. Bravo.

This is so bizarre. Meet Valeria and Camila, two conjoined twin influencers with 290,000 followers on Instagram, hyper‑glossy bikinis and intimate dating anecdotes, except they aren’t real. 

They’re AI‑generated conjoined twins cooked up by anonymous creators to catch your eye and drive engagement so they can make money. The twins have a detailed medical backstory and childhood pics, without any disclosure that it’s all fake.

Even the grifters are outsourcing to AI.

🔜 Tomorrow: That pile of clothes in your closet, the ones you’re definitely going to fit into again someday, could be worth real money. I’ll show you what sells, which apps pay you instantly and why they’re crushing old-school resale sites. Stop letting those someday jeans collect dust. Turn them into cash you can spend today. It’s all in your inbox tomorrow.

🧠 The answer: D) A Pixar employee saved Toy Story 2 with a personal copy on her home computer. Technical Director Galyn Susman, freshly back from maternity leave, had been working remotely and happened to have her own version of the entire film.

When the studio found out their servers had casually erased 90% of the movie, Galyn’s computer was hustled back to Pixar HQ, strapped into a car seat, wrapped in blankets and treated more cautiously than a newborn baby on a bumpy road trip. Otherwise, it would have been total buzzkill.

Rick Astley will let you borrow any movie from his Pixar collection except one. He’s never gonna give you Up. (Go ahead, hit the link and sing it with a smile.)

👙 Summer bodies start now: Don’t wait until it’s sold out everywhere. ImproveLife GLP-1 Support is in stock and ready to ship. Get up to 30% off, free shipping and a free gift with ImproveLife GLP-1 Support today.**

Keep opening these emails. Tomorrow’s $250 February Cash Grab giveaway could have your name on it!

✨ You’re closer than you think. Keep pushing, the breakthrough is coming. — Kim

Kim Komando • Komando.com • 510+ radio stations • Trusted by millions daily

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Photo credit(s): Gemini, Portta, @itsvaleriaandcamila via Instagram

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