Is There More to HBO Max’s Content Deletions Than Just Tax Breaks?

When I was a teenager, I worked at the mostly now-defunct Suncoast Video. Sometimes a customer came in looking for a movie we didn’t have and asked if we could order it, so I’d look it up on our antiquated computer system. (It had one of those old-fashioned, huge honking CRT monitors, okay?)

If the movie wasn’t available, I’d usually look to see if it was out of production/print, in which case I’d suggest the customer look for a used copy on eBay or Amazon. One day I pulled up a title and noted in the production…