My unvalidated assumption is that if I can take screenshots of a movie on my Mac, I can also record the full content and duplicate the movie. Thus, this is a copy protection measure.
A better way to think of this might be 'voluntary commercial agreements entered by gigantic corporations'. The results are some mildly annoying misfeatures inflicted on consumers (the 'dystopia' in the GP comment) and wide, cheap, on-demand availability of unfathomable quantities of digital content (the 'utopia' we actually live in).
In my opinion, there are two kinds of people who work in Hollywood:
- People who make movies, who probably don't care if you pirate the movie much because the studio is going to screw them over in their pay anyway. These people want as many folks to see the movie in all its different ways as possible.
- People who run the studios, whose salaries, bonuses, etc, are all attached to investors, who want to see the film returns increase. These people want you to see the movie, but only you, only after you pay, for each viewing, in the time, place, and conditions they set.
Anyway, the one thing that is even more user-hostile is sending app-makers screenshot-was-made events without telling the users. This is a thing on Android.
But in the real world that doesn’t happen and Apple needs their support to get this content on the platform in the first place.
The snark does not really add anything to the discussion.
Apple is the second largest company in the world by market cap. I think they have some leverage.