3 ms·

Why would you pay for this? What problem does it solve for you better than existing content delivery methods?

• ghshephard 8y ago
  You would get high quality, online access to the entirety of the world's movie collection for a reasonably low rate.
  • osrec 8y ago
    I understand, but it seems like an incredibly inefficient method of achieving that goal, no?
• derefr 8y ago
  Presuming this company existed in many countries instead of just my own, and that I could get something sent to any of their receiving centers in order to stream it... this would enable me to watch stuff that Netflix only has available (on DVD) in countries that are not my own. It's a physical-media VPN. If such a service also provided a more general permanent digitization service for media you actually own (where you would send them your own discs, or forward them any random CD/DVD/BR you buy off the Internet, and they would rip the disc out of the packaging it comes in, digitize it, put it on a server for you, and then destroy the original), then—in combination with the multiple-countries thing—I could use this to consume content that doesn't have a streaming version, only a physical edition; and where that physical edition isn't sold for export, but only in its country of origin. (Think: limited-release pressings of albums from indie bands; movies from film festivals that never ended up seeing general release; etc.) Essentially, it's like getting some physical media sent to Archive.org for expert digitization+preservation, but without distribution to the general public, just to the person who paid to do the preservation. (Though, they could certainly sit on their own copy of the digitized work indefinitely, never giving it to anyone or acknowledging that they have it, waiting for the day it either enters the public domain, or they acquire distribution rights to it, whereupon they can put it into a public catalogue.)
  • osrec 8y ago
    Ah, understood (TIL Netflix distributes certain movies physically only)!