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My take: "The purpose of DRM is to give content providers leverage against creators of playback devices and their own consumers." How have I regretted purchasi

My take: "The purpose of DRM is to give content providers leverage against creators of playback devices and their own consumers." How have I regretted purchasing Blu-Rays in the past. They require an update to the drive firmware, they require their own GPU driver version, they require an update to the player software, and they try to sneak spyware onto my PC anyway. It is almost impossible to legally watch an authentic blu-ray on a Windows PC. Similarly, how have I regretted allowing my TV to connect to the internet. The first thing that happened was that it started shoving ads into my face. So I did a factory reset and disconnected it. Now, Netflix and Prime TV are unusable. Plus the YouTube app never managed to play back 4K videos on a 4K TV without crashing. I don't quite know why they hate me so much, but whenever I try to be nice to movie companies and purchase their stuff, they treat me like shit. And DRM is their legal whip to fuck me over. Blu-Ray? doesn't work. DRM. Offline iTunes? doesn't work in 4K. DRM. Prime TV? mandatory internet for DRM. Then ads. Netflix? mandatory internet for DRM. Then ads. On the other hand, an mkv file on a USB stick "just works", has exceptional audio and video quality, doesn't buffer, and I can skip all the ads.

krylon 5y ago
It has been like that for a long time. The non-skippable intro screen warning viewers of the evils of unlicensed copying was only ever seen by people not watching an unlicensed copy. FWIW, I think movies need to take the same route music did. Ever since I found out I could just buy DRM-free high-quality audio at a reasonable price, I have happily paid for the music I like, because it was so very convenient. If it was as convenient to legally buy copies of movies / TV shows, I'd be happy to spend some money for that.
- stilisstuk 5y ago
  Where do you buy audio? I don't use apple (itunes) and only some stuff is on bandcamp...
  - krylon 5y ago
    Mostly on Amazon. When possible on bandcamp.
  - l72 5y ago
    Primarily bandcamp, since I can get flac and support artists directly. But I also use 7-digital for more mainstream releases (they also offer flac and some releases as Hi-Res 24-bit flac if that is your thing)
- netcan 5y ago
  Netflix & Spotify are currently worth $275bn & $45bn. I think it's quite unlikely that such results would be achieved with a pay-x-get-y store model. Even Disney & Universal, themselves enormously valuable companies, are greedily eying the platform model. It has everything they want. Recurring revenues. Content pushing abilities, which is usually the most strategically important asset. Platform monopoly potential, where most artists/studios take your take-it-or-leave-it terms. They don't hate you. They just do whatever is most valuable to them. They don't care about you. They may or may not value your custom, but that's about it.
  - ipaddr 5y ago
    275 billion? Seems overvalued as we enter a new cycle of more services going online.
    - outside1234 5y ago
      You are probably right, but remember that Netflix is essentially a worldwide leader in producing and distributing movies - something we really haven’t seen before.
  - wbsss4412 5y ago
    You’re severely discounting the value Netflix and Spotify provide in discovery and ease of access. I vastly prefer those services because I don’t have much interest in managing my own library.
    - dylan604 5y ago
      >You’re severely discounting the value Netflix ... provide in discovery and ease of access. What the what? Discover on Netflix? If you mean accepting what they think you want to watch based on their curated lists of what they want you to watch shoved into your face in their carousels of boredom, then I'm going to have to disagree with you.
      - wbsss4412 5y ago
- gwbas1c 5y ago
  Not sure if this is what you want, but I occasionally "buy" a TV show from Google Play. There's no forced ads. I mostly do it because it's cheaper than a cable subscription, and the player is easier to use than Kodi.
gambiting 5y ago
I mean, it might not be legal where you live(definitely not illegal here) but MakeMKV takes about 20 minutes per disc and you can just watch the movie in VLC, works 100% of the time. Why bother with any special players.
- fxtentacle 5y ago
  I believe it's a legal gray area where I live, but I have also done that many times. Purchase the blu-ray, rip it myself. That way I feel like I did the morally correct thing by supporting the people who made the movie. But it might still be technically illegal because I circumvented the DRM.
jevoten 5y ago
> I don't quite know why they hate me so much, but whenever I try to be nice to movie companies and purchase their stuff, they treat me like shit. It's called "paying the Danegeld".
- fxtentacle 5y ago
  That's a great Wikipedia rabbit hole. And I like this quote with s/dane/DRM/. "if once you have paid him the DRM-geld, you never get rid of the DRM".
mysterydip 5y ago
My personal favorite example right now, having three smaller children, is amazon's "expiration" of videos installed on their kindles, that we don't find out about until we're on a trip somewhere. How do I explain to a kid that they can't watch their favorite movie that worked fine last time, or that they can't download any more episodes of their favorite show because someone decided they could only have 20 videos regardless of storage capacity?

krylon 5y ago

It has been like that for a long time. The non-skippable intro screen warning viewers of the evils of unlicensed copying was only ever seen by people not watching an unlicensed copy. FWIW, I think movies need to take the same route music did. Ever since I found out I could just buy DRM-free high-quality audio at a reasonable price, I have happily paid for the music I like, because it was so very convenient. If it was as convenient to legally buy copies of movies / TV shows, I'd be happy to spend some money for that.

stilisstuk 5y ago
Where do you buy audio? I don't use apple (itunes) and only some stuff is on bandcamp...
- krylon 5y ago
  Mostly on Amazon. When possible on bandcamp.
- l72 5y ago
  Primarily bandcamp, since I can get flac and support artists directly. But I also use 7-digital for more mainstream releases (they also offer flac and some releases as Hi-Res 24-bit flac if that is your thing)
netcan 5y ago
Netflix & Spotify are currently worth $275bn & $45bn. I think it's quite unlikely that such results would be achieved with a pay-x-get-y store model. Even Disney & Universal, themselves enormously valuable companies, are greedily eying the platform model. It has everything they want. Recurring revenues. Content pushing abilities, which is usually the most strategically important asset. Platform monopoly potential, where most artists/studios take your take-it-or-leave-it terms. They don't hate you. They just do whatever is most valuable to them. They don't care about you. They may or may not value your custom, but that's about it.
- ipaddr 5y ago
  275 billion? Seems overvalued as we enter a new cycle of more services going online.
  - outside1234 5y ago
    You are probably right, but remember that Netflix is essentially a worldwide leader in producing and distributing movies - something we really haven’t seen before.
- wbsss4412 5y ago
  You’re severely discounting the value Netflix and Spotify provide in discovery and ease of access. I vastly prefer those services because I don’t have much interest in managing my own library.
  - dylan604 5y ago
    >You’re severely discounting the value Netflix ... provide in discovery and ease of access. What the what? Discover on Netflix? If you mean accepting what they think you want to watch based on their curated lists of what they want you to watch shoved into your face in their carousels of boredom, then I'm going to have to disagree with you.
    - wbsss4412 5y ago
gwbas1c 5y ago
Not sure if this is what you want, but I occasionally "buy" a TV show from Google Play. There's no forced ads. I mostly do it because it's cheaper than a cable subscription, and the player is easier to use than Kodi.

gambiting 5y ago

I mean, it might not be legal where you live(definitely not illegal here) but MakeMKV takes about 20 minutes per disc and you can just watch the movie in VLC, works 100% of the time. Why bother with any special players.

fxtentacle 5y ago
I believe it's a legal gray area where I live, but I have also done that many times. Purchase the blu-ray, rip it myself. That way I feel like I did the morally correct thing by supporting the people who made the movie. But it might still be technically illegal because I circumvented the DRM.

jevoten 5y ago

> I don't quite know why they hate me so much, but whenever I try to be nice to movie companies and purchase their stuff, they treat me like shit. It's called "paying the Danegeld".

fxtentacle 5y ago
That's a great Wikipedia rabbit hole. And I like this quote with s/dane/DRM/. "if once you have paid him the DRM-geld, you never get rid of the DRM".

mysterydip 5y ago

My personal favorite example right now, having three smaller children, is amazon's "expiration" of videos installed on their kindles, that we don't find out about until we're on a trip somewhere. How do I explain to a kid that they can't watch their favorite movie that worked fine last time, or that they can't download any more episodes of their favorite show because someone decided they could only have 20 videos regardless of storage capacity?