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This is the reason I've given up on "owning" digital content on online platforms. At this point I will not purchase movies or tv-shows, only stream them on stre

This is the reason I've given up on "owning" digital content on online platforms. At this point I will not purchase movies or tv-shows, only stream them on streaming platforms. Studios are shooting themselves in both feet by making it impossible to truly own content. By implementing customer hostile licensing models for digital purchases people will move towards streaming instead which generate far less income than selling the content à la carte.

mike_hock 4y ago
It's been the same idiocy for more than 2 decades now. It always has to be some convoluted contribution model designed to frustrate the customer. Just fucking sell the movie in a free, standardized format with no strings attached. So then it'll be possible to copy it but copying is illegal. Well guess what ... The only difference now is that the pirate is better off and the customer is a chump.
- snorremd 4y ago
  I agree. I think Bandcamp is a shining example of how digital sales could be handled. They provide DRM free open format files that you can re-download whenever you want to. No-one is going to take away the files you've already downloaded and saved on some disk. Bandcamp might go out of business and in such a case you'd lose access to any content you have not saved. But that is a fair trade-off. But the movie industry believes DRM free formats would undercut their region based business model and allow rampant piracy. Like people haven't been cracking DRM-locked content for ages already. And they might be right about increased copyright infringement, but dismantling the whole notion of ownership is not the solution.
TheRealDunkirk 4y ago
The problem is the bait-and-switch. All the really good stuff is behind a second paywall. The movies you really want to watch cost extra money to rent and "more" extra money to "buy." I'm paying for the cake, but then getting charged extra for the icing. It's really starting to irritate me.
JohnHaugeland 4y ago
I just don't understand this attitude I used to own physical media. It got destroyed and scratched and lost constantly. I've been buying digital media online for decades. So far I've lost one album. Practically speaking, digital is far more durable in the balance.
- celeritascelery 4y ago
  > Practically speaking, digital is far more durable in the balance. It is, until it’s not. You wouldn’t loose an entire part of your physical collection because some company on the other side of globe decided you shouldn’t be able to use it. But that happens all the time with DRM content. If you only lost 1 album, you are lucky. Past performance is not is not indicative of future results.
  - JohnHaugeland 4y ago
    It is, period, flat out. Things don't lack durability simply because you speculate that one day something might go badly. Past performance is, as an issue of fact, the single best indicator of future events. You say "it happens all the time with DRM content," but I just asked a Discord with 12,000 people, and of the roughly 60 people who responded saying "I buy music online," zero of them have had it happen to them either Anyway, as a nuclear power fan, I hard reject anyone saying "ignore the statistics and make decisions based on my spooky stories about the future." I actually have lost large parts of my physical collection several times, due to theft. It's really boring hearing "the things that have happened to you would never happen, and you should fear a thing that I claim is really common, even though it's never happened to anyone you've asked." If it's so frequent, can you name a single album that's been taken down from Amazon without running to a search engine for help? Can you even do it with one? Oh.
    - effingwewt 4y ago
      Dude strawmanning and shit talking all day from you in this thread is pretty pathetic. I've yet to see a single cogent argument from you yet other than 'I disagree with you so you're wrong'. Those physical copies could have been ripped and stored/copied as many of us did. You could also lend out and re-sell those physical copies. Stop trying to compare digital to physical. Companies can't just snap their fingers and take away a physical copy I paid for. You cry about music but this very thread is about people buying and losing access to a huge movie catalog.
BLKNSLVR 4y ago
I feel the need to give a shout out to Bandcamp who, upon purchase of digital music media, allow immediate download of said media in various formats, including FLAC. Keep fighting the good fight Bandcamp!
- thirdsun 4y ago
  It's not just Bandcamp though - DRM-free files are the default in the music industry and they can be bought from various stores, including lossless formats.

mike_hock 4y ago

It's been the same idiocy for more than 2 decades now. It always has to be some convoluted contribution model designed to frustrate the customer. Just fucking sell the movie in a free, standardized format with no strings attached. So then it'll be possible to copy it but copying is illegal. Well guess what ... The only difference now is that the pirate is better off and the customer is a chump.

snorremd 4y ago
I agree. I think Bandcamp is a shining example of how digital sales could be handled. They provide DRM free open format files that you can re-download whenever you want to. No-one is going to take away the files you've already downloaded and saved on some disk. Bandcamp might go out of business and in such a case you'd lose access to any content you have not saved. But that is a fair trade-off. But the movie industry believes DRM free formats would undercut their region based business model and allow rampant piracy. Like people haven't been cracking DRM-locked content for ages already. And they might be right about increased copyright infringement, but dismantling the whole notion of ownership is not the solution.

TheRealDunkirk 4y ago

The problem is the bait-and-switch. All the really good stuff is behind a second paywall. The movies you really want to watch cost extra money to rent and "more" extra money to "buy." I'm paying for the cake, but then getting charged extra for the icing. It's really starting to irritate me.

JohnHaugeland 4y ago

I just don't understand this attitude I used to own physical media. It got destroyed and scratched and lost constantly. I've been buying digital media online for decades. So far I've lost one album. Practically speaking, digital is far more durable in the balance.

celeritascelery 4y ago
> Practically speaking, digital is far more durable in the balance. It is, until it’s not. You wouldn’t loose an entire part of your physical collection because some company on the other side of globe decided you shouldn’t be able to use it. But that happens all the time with DRM content. If you only lost 1 album, you are lucky. Past performance is not is not indicative of future results.
- JohnHaugeland 4y ago
  It is, period, flat out. Things don't lack durability simply because you speculate that one day something might go badly. Past performance is, as an issue of fact, the single best indicator of future events. You say "it happens all the time with DRM content," but I just asked a Discord with 12,000 people, and of the roughly 60 people who responded saying "I buy music online," zero of them have had it happen to them either Anyway, as a nuclear power fan, I hard reject anyone saying "ignore the statistics and make decisions based on my spooky stories about the future." I actually have lost large parts of my physical collection several times, due to theft. It's really boring hearing "the things that have happened to you would never happen, and you should fear a thing that I claim is really common, even though it's never happened to anyone you've asked." If it's so frequent, can you name a single album that's been taken down from Amazon without running to a search engine for help? Can you even do it with one? Oh.
  - effingwewt 4y ago
    Dude strawmanning and shit talking all day from you in this thread is pretty pathetic. I've yet to see a single cogent argument from you yet other than 'I disagree with you so you're wrong'. Those physical copies could have been ripped and stored/copied as many of us did. You could also lend out and re-sell those physical copies. Stop trying to compare digital to physical. Companies can't just snap their fingers and take away a physical copy I paid for. You cry about music but this very thread is about people buying and losing access to a huge movie catalog.

BLKNSLVR 4y ago

I feel the need to give a shout out to Bandcamp who, upon purchase of digital music media, allow immediate download of said media in various formats, including FLAC. Keep fighting the good fight Bandcamp!

thirdsun 4y ago
It's not just Bandcamp though - DRM-free files are the default in the music industry and they can be bought from various stores, including lossless formats.