5 ms·

This is one of those issues that I really see both sides of. I think it's unreasonable to expect a company to be able to provide the ability to download content

by dimmke 3y ago

This is one of those issues that I really see both sides of. I think it's unreasonable to expect a company to be able to provide the ability to download content you bought once in perpetuity. Because it costs money, and companies shut down etc... Where it gets dicey is if the removal of availability of an item means you can no longer consume it even if you already have it downloaded. That's where regulation should come in. I just don't think it's tenable to have a regulation that says "If you're a company that sells digital goods with copy protection, you must always keep those goods available for download in perpetuity"

caconym_ 3y ago
Is it a straightforward download? I've never used any of these "digital copy" codes but I always assumed they let you stream it on a closed platform rather than just giving you a DRM-free file you can do whatever with. Seems like this would be way less problematic if they offered a full download for a limited time. The real digital copy is on the disk itself, for those with an optical drive and a few minutes to search the web for appropriate software...
- jonathankoren 3y ago
  All things are possible in software. It’s just that rich guys say what we’re not allowed to do.
- dimmke 3y ago
  I think that's the problem is that it's different on a case by case basis. For example, a book I bought for Kindle on Amazon was recently taken off the store. But I am still able to download and access the book. It sounds like in this case, it was a locked down streaming situation that's going away because the company is simply merging into Crunchyroll and this is kind of a dangling thing they don't feel like bringing over with them. I'm not sure what the solution is - you could argue that the people who bought the physical media did so with the expectation of being able to also stream it digitally. But it's not like Funimation has the ability to just be like "Here's the video file, go ahead and download it" - even if they had the will to do so they likely don't have the legal ability. But they do retain access to a physical copy and of course, could just rip it. I think there is copy protection for DVDs and Blurays but that's long since been cracked. Not ideal from a legal/consumer rights perspective, but from a pragrmatic perspective it's the easiest solution (actually easiest would just be pirating an existing rip online likely.)
  - lelandbatey 3y ago
    > But it's not like Funimation has the ability to just be like "Here's the video file, go ahead and download it" - even if they had the will to do so they likely don't have the legal ability Potentially true, but probably only due to themselves being under a licensing constrain. The point here is that the folks who ultimately do have total licensing control, the folks who licensed to Funimation to license to users, those folks should have foreseen that in the event of end customers losing access they should've allowed for giving them offline files (at least that's what I as a customer who "bought" a thing would expect). Instead, as usual the customer is getting screwed after a big "eh, that would be inconvenient/we might merely make a lot of money instead of a shitton of money."
bsimpson 3y ago
It would actually be pretty rad if the rule was "if your thing fails, you need to make DRM free copies available for your users for __ period." Give the soft landing that Google gave for its Stadia controllers. Hard to enforce though if the company that fails also ceases to exist (and ceases to have servers, etc.). I wonder how a rule like that would impact contract negotiations.
makeitdouble 3y ago
> I just don't think it's tenable to have a regulation that says "If you're a company that sells digital goods with copy protection, you must always keep those goods available for download in perpetuity" Why not ? Companies can remove that copy protection at any point and stop being subjected to that regulation. It would still need a minimum period to let the user download their contents, but the rule feels straightforward to me.

by dimmke 3y ago

caconym_ 3y ago

Is it a straightforward download? I've never used any of these "digital copy" codes but I always assumed they let you stream it on a closed platform rather than just giving you a DRM-free file you can do whatever with. Seems like this would be way less problematic if they offered a full download for a limited time. The real digital copy is on the disk itself, for those with an optical drive and a few minutes to search the web for appropriate software...

jonathankoren 3y ago
All things are possible in software. It’s just that rich guys say what we’re not allowed to do.
dimmke 3y ago
I think that's the problem is that it's different on a case by case basis. For example, a book I bought for Kindle on Amazon was recently taken off the store. But I am still able to download and access the book. It sounds like in this case, it was a locked down streaming situation that's going away because the company is simply merging into Crunchyroll and this is kind of a dangling thing they don't feel like bringing over with them. I'm not sure what the solution is - you could argue that the people who bought the physical media did so with the expectation of being able to also stream it digitally. But it's not like Funimation has the ability to just be like "Here's the video file, go ahead and download it" - even if they had the will to do so they likely don't have the legal ability. But they do retain access to a physical copy and of course, could just rip it. I think there is copy protection for DVDs and Blurays but that's long since been cracked. Not ideal from a legal/consumer rights perspective, but from a pragrmatic perspective it's the easiest solution (actually easiest would just be pirating an existing rip online likely.)
- lelandbatey 3y ago
  > But it's not like Funimation has the ability to just be like "Here's the video file, go ahead and download it" - even if they had the will to do so they likely don't have the legal ability Potentially true, but probably only due to themselves being under a licensing constrain. The point here is that the folks who ultimately do have total licensing control, the folks who licensed to Funimation to license to users, those folks should have foreseen that in the event of end customers losing access they should've allowed for giving them offline files (at least that's what I as a customer who "bought" a thing would expect). Instead, as usual the customer is getting screwed after a big "eh, that would be inconvenient/we might merely make a lot of money instead of a shitton of money."

bsimpson 3y ago

It would actually be pretty rad if the rule was "if your thing fails, you need to make DRM free copies available for your users for __ period." Give the soft landing that Google gave for its Stadia controllers. Hard to enforce though if the company that fails also ceases to exist (and ceases to have servers, etc.). I wonder how a rule like that would impact contract negotiations.

makeitdouble 3y ago

> I just don't think it's tenable to have a regulation that says "If you're a company that sells digital goods with copy protection, you must always keep those goods available for download in perpetuity" Why not ? Companies can remove that copy protection at any point and stop being subjected to that regulation. It would still need a minimum period to let the user download their contents, but the rule feels straightforward to me.