5 ms·

> don’t yell and scream about how you’re losing business to piracy when your stuff isn’t even available in the box I have on top of my TV. I ran into this a fe

> don’t yell and scream about how you’re losing business to piracy when your stuff isn’t even available in the box I have on top of my TV. I ran into this a few months ago. I was bored and slightly drunk from brunch on a Saturday afternoon, and got it in my mind that I’d catch up on the final four Harry Potter movies. Whatever. That it was Harry Potter isn’t necessarily the point. Three of these films - Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince, and Part 2 of Deathly Hollows - were available on Amazon video for rental. Score! Of course, I didn’t realize Part 1 of the Deathly Hollows wasn’t available on Amazon when I started this drunken marathon. But you can believe after the first two, I was in the mood for more. And I wasn’t about to ruin the series by watching Part 2 before Part 1. I won’t say what route I took to watch it, but these were my legal options after scouring Netflix Streaming, Hulu+, Amazon OnDemand and iTunes: * Wait two-to-three days for a DVD to arrive from Netflix * Go to Blockbus..oh. * Go to a DVD sto..oh. I mean, I suppose I could’ve taken the train 20 minutes to Best Buy at Union Square, bought the DVD of a film I was only going to watch once, take the train 20 minutes back home and … shit. I don’t have a DVD player anymore. I won’t tell you the course of action I took. Only that the entire experience was exasperating, annoying, and thoroughly made me want to not watch the rest of Harry Potter. And I wanted to give them money. I don’t get how this is hard to understand.

boredguy8 15y ago
"I don’t get how this is hard to understand." Because the 'other side' doesn't understand why you think they have to make it easy for you to buy Harry Potter 7.1 and if they don't, why you think you get to circumvent their processes. You wanted to give them money on your terms. They want you to give them money on their terms. I think that sums it up.
- nitrogen 15y ago
  You wanted to give them money on your terms. They want you to give them money on their terms. I think that sums it up. It is the responsibility of the producer to meet the terms of the consumer, or else go out of business.
- nantes 15y ago
  Interesting. I think this points out a difference between my lifetime and my parents. Lots of thing (most of things?) were negotiated. I can't even imagine negotiating for something like a candy bar at the grocery store and I certainly can't even try to negotiate with the studios on a movie rental. This complete inability to show any flexibility by the studios (and many other businesses) shows that the inelasticity of the market.
- burgerbrain 15y ago
  "They want you to give them money" Clearly not.
- bowyakka 15y ago
  I am going to be a little naughty and quote my good friend who I had this very conversation over email with about two years ago ---- ME: It just dumbfounds me that, with card in hand they cant make this shit work. I had the same problem with microsoft and fallout3 extensions, after I went through microsofts increadibly evil market place for games thing, bought myself some credits (why can't I just use money guys) and downloaded the extensions, I had to jerry rig them to work with fallout3 because that version I downloaded with steam, and MS has a clause in their terms about versions of fallout downloaded from competing software devlivery systems. In fact steam is the only on of these fucking things I have ever used that just works (in fact it works a bit too well its nearly as dangerous to my wallet as amazons one click) Hint guys, If you cant make it like steam, or amazons one click, just pack up shop and go home, the more hoops I jump through, just to appease your circle jacking business people and "Information architects" the more likly I am to just pirate the software. My Friend: > > It just dumbfounds me that, with card in hand they cant make this shit work. I feel your pain. But you're expecting it to work because you see it as a transaction, you buy it, they give it to you. They on the other hand are living in crazy bugfuck dying-media-company world (it's Sony), where it's actually an opportunity for you to STEAL FROM THEM. And so people who a) don't know how software works and b) aren't operating with a full deck to start with dictate how the process gets built. They add this and demand that in this big committee (all the more efficient because it's actually a tree of committees), and some poor schmoe programmer implements it the way he's told. The real surprise is that they manage to sell /anything/.
moe 15y ago
I have a nice story, too. Just the other day my Macbook died; "green light of death", i.e. it's not charging and not turning on anymore (presumably the battery is dead). On the harddrive of said Macbook I have ~$300 worth of purchased iTunes movies that I cannot access anymore. I had never bothered to back them up because I was under the naive assumption I could just re-download them when needed. A service that I took for granted not only because I do it with their apps and music all the time, but also because most of their movies were more expensive than the equivalent DVD. Well, needless to say, apple does not allow to re-download purchased movies. I may still be able to recover that harddrive. But I'm most certainly not buying movies from apple anymore.
- there 15y ago
  is that really a problem with itunes? if your house burned down, you'd lose all of the movies you had on DVD. at least with itunes movies, you can legally make backups of the files.
  - bostonpete 15y ago
    Sure , but houses rarely burn down. Computers crash a lot. In fact, I'd venture to say that most (or maybe close to most?) computers end up in some state where their owners either can't or think they can't retrieve data from them. Based on the likelihood of this happening to their customers, it'd be decent to let users re-download media you know they've already paid for and been given access to...
    - zcid 15y ago
      In addition to this is the commonly stated idea that you don't own a copy of a movie, you only have a license to watch it. If that's the case, I should be able to acquire the movie data assuming I have already paid for a license to watch said movie. Right now, consumers get the worst of both worlds.
    - frooxie 15y ago
      Is it really that usual? I've used computers daily for 23 years, and I've never had a hard disk crash.
Ryan_Shmotkin 15y ago
I have a story too, I really wanted an apple and when I came into the super market they had this HUGE line and they only accept credit cards on purchases above 5$. I won't tell you the course of action I took, but I really wanted an apple. Obviously, totally their fault and its OK since they are a failing industry.
- ThomPete 15y ago
  The thing is. There is a finite number of apples.
  - rincewind 15y ago
    There are more important differences: 1. Apples are fungible; one apple is as good as the next one: unlike Harry Potter movies you can consume apples in any order. 2. Nobody holds the copyright on a particular apple. There are many companies growing apples. 3. You can grow apple trees in your own garden from seeds. If this takes too long, you can buy a tree. 4. You can not download an apple. 5. Eating destroys apples. 6. Apples can rot. etc...
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

boredguy8 15y ago

"I don’t get how this is hard to understand." Because the 'other side' doesn't understand why you think they have to make it easy for you to buy Harry Potter 7.1 and if they don't, why you think you get to circumvent their processes. You wanted to give them money on your terms. They want you to give them money on their terms. I think that sums it up.

nitrogen 15y ago
You wanted to give them money on your terms. They want you to give them money on their terms. I think that sums it up. It is the responsibility of the producer to meet the terms of the consumer, or else go out of business.
nantes 15y ago
Interesting. I think this points out a difference between my lifetime and my parents. Lots of thing (most of things?) were negotiated. I can't even imagine negotiating for something like a candy bar at the grocery store and I certainly can't even try to negotiate with the studios on a movie rental. This complete inability to show any flexibility by the studios (and many other businesses) shows that the inelasticity of the market.
burgerbrain 15y ago
"They want you to give them money" Clearly not.
bowyakka 15y ago
I am going to be a little naughty and quote my good friend who I had this very conversation over email with about two years ago ---- ME: It just dumbfounds me that, with card in hand they cant make this shit work. I had the same problem with microsoft and fallout3 extensions, after I went through microsofts increadibly evil market place for games thing, bought myself some credits (why can't I just use money guys) and downloaded the extensions, I had to jerry rig them to work with fallout3 because that version I downloaded with steam, and MS has a clause in their terms about versions of fallout downloaded from competing software devlivery systems. In fact steam is the only on of these fucking things I have ever used that just works (in fact it works a bit too well its nearly as dangerous to my wallet as amazons one click) Hint guys, If you cant make it like steam, or amazons one click, just pack up shop and go home, the more hoops I jump through, just to appease your circle jacking business people and "Information architects" the more likly I am to just pirate the software. My Friend: > > It just dumbfounds me that, with card in hand they cant make this shit work. I feel your pain. But you're expecting it to work because you see it as a transaction, you buy it, they give it to you. They on the other hand are living in crazy bugfuck dying-media-company world (it's Sony), where it's actually an opportunity for you to STEAL FROM THEM. And so people who a) don't know how software works and b) aren't operating with a full deck to start with dictate how the process gets built. They add this and demand that in this big committee (all the more efficient because it's actually a tree of committees), and some poor schmoe programmer implements it the way he's told. The real surprise is that they manage to sell /anything/.

moe 15y ago

I have a nice story, too. Just the other day my Macbook died; "green light of death", i.e. it's not charging and not turning on anymore (presumably the battery is dead). On the harddrive of said Macbook I have ~$300 worth of purchased iTunes movies that I cannot access anymore. I had never bothered to back them up because I was under the naive assumption I could just re-download them when needed. A service that I took for granted not only because I do it with their apps and music all the time, but also because most of their movies were more expensive than the equivalent DVD. Well, needless to say, apple does not allow to re-download purchased movies. I may still be able to recover that harddrive. But I'm most certainly not buying movies from apple anymore.

there 15y ago
is that really a problem with itunes? if your house burned down, you'd lose all of the movies you had on DVD. at least with itunes movies, you can legally make backups of the files.
- bostonpete 15y ago
  Sure , but houses rarely burn down. Computers crash a lot. In fact, I'd venture to say that most (or maybe close to most?) computers end up in some state where their owners either can't or think they can't retrieve data from them. Based on the likelihood of this happening to their customers, it'd be decent to let users re-download media you know they've already paid for and been given access to...
  - zcid 15y ago
    In addition to this is the commonly stated idea that you don't own a copy of a movie, you only have a license to watch it. If that's the case, I should be able to acquire the movie data assuming I have already paid for a license to watch said movie. Right now, consumers get the worst of both worlds.
  - frooxie 15y ago
    Is it really that usual? I've used computers daily for 23 years, and I've never had a hard disk crash.

Ryan_Shmotkin 15y ago

I have a story too, I really wanted an apple and when I came into the super market they had this HUGE line and they only accept credit cards on purchases above 5$. I won't tell you the course of action I took, but I really wanted an apple. Obviously, totally their fault and its OK since they are a failing industry.

ThomPete 15y ago
The thing is. There is a finite number of apples.
- rincewind 15y ago
  There are more important differences: 1. Apples are fungible; one apple is as good as the next one: unlike Harry Potter movies you can consume apples in any order. 2. Nobody holds the copyright on a particular apple. There are many companies growing apples. 3. You can grow apple trees in your own garden from seeds. If this takes too long, you can buy a tree. 4. You can not download an apple. 5. Eating destroys apples. 6. Apples can rot. etc...

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]