5 ms·

> I've seen a ton of movies via it that I've wanted to watch for decades but couldn't find It blows my mind how much stuff (old stuff! especially non-blockbust

> I've seen a ton of movies via it that I've wanted to watch for decades but couldn't find It blows my mind how much stuff (old stuff! especially non-blockbusters) isn't available anywhere streaming. I can't imagine why you wouldn't release a lot of that stuff and make a bit of extra money on those old titles.

Altay- 11y ago
Is there an opportunity here? I regularly 'digitize' old media for archival purposes. If a lot of Netflix DVDs are truly not available anywhere else, I would consider simply ripping them, storing them online and sharing them via p2p.
- 2muchcoffeeman 11y ago
  Legalities aside, there is definitely a market. In AU we have quickflix.com.au. I don't even have a working DVD player anymore. But when I did, I almost exclusively got DVDs that were hard to find even on torrent sites.
jfb 11y ago
There's the obvious reason -- that digitization is expensive, relatively speaking -- but even more so, the rights to a lot of those older movies are not well defined. Many of those older movies are under contracts that have no provision for digitization, and in many cases the rightsholders who could grant a license are unknown. It's a mess.
- jkestner 11y ago
  And that's a great case for actually allowing copyrights to expire at some point.
- e12e 11y ago
  > There's the obvious reason -- that digitization is expensive Um, if it's on DVD it's already digitized.
  - jfb 11y ago
    It's unfortunately not that simple. Nobody uses DVD as a mezzanine format, partly because 4:2:0 MPEG-2 at DVD data rates is unsuitable for further manipulation, and partly because the DVD rights holders may not hold the rights to republish. It's a mess.
    - e12e 11y ago
      I just meant that in the process of producing a DVD, all the material would have to have been digitized. I'm sure for some releases the production companies have gone bankrupt and/or the files are lost -- but I'd think that once digitized the masters would be kept around?
      - jfb 11y ago
        You'd like to think so, but for the most part, the digitization and prep work is done by post houses or specialist digital distribution services, and the intermediates, which cost money to preserve, are almost always discarded.
      - deleted 11y ago
        [deleted]
derefr 11y ago
I presume because the IP owner thinks the extra royalties they'd make off the streaming would be less than the cost of digitizing, metadata creation, etc.
- WalterBright 11y ago
  I have some record albums from the 1950's. A few years ago, I checked around and they weren't available anywhere, even used, not no-how not no-way. But recently I noticed them showing up on Amazon as mp3 downloads. Evidently, record companies are finally going through their back catalogs and making this stuff available again. It's happening more and more with old paperback books, too, showing up as kindle books or collections on a dvd. It hasn't happened yet for, say, made-for-TV movies produced in the 1970s. I also think there'd be money to be made in simply producing an online archive of Channel 7 News broadcasts from 1975. Wouldn't that be fun to look at now and then?
  - zrail 11y ago
    > I also think there'd be money to be made in simply producing an online archive of Channel 7 News broadcasts from 1975. Wouldn't that be fun to look at now and then? Probably, but often this just plain doesn't exist. I tried to get footage from a news station back in the 90s and they basically said they only keep the really notable days and otherwise recycle the tape after a few years.
    - ForHackernews 11y ago
      http://www.dailydot.com/entertainment/marion-stokes-vhs-internet-archive-input/ http://www.dailydot.com/entertainment/marion-stokes-vhs-inte...
    - e12e 11y ago
      Which news station? I know public broadcasters across Europe generally keep very extensive archives (that are generally now being, or have recently been, digitized).
DanBC 11y ago
The industry argument is that old stock dilutes new purchases. That's one reason why book publishers avoid re-publishing cheap editions of out of copyright work.

Altay- 11y ago

Is there an opportunity here? I regularly 'digitize' old media for archival purposes. If a lot of Netflix DVDs are truly not available anywhere else, I would consider simply ripping them, storing them online and sharing them via p2p.

2muchcoffeeman 11y ago
Legalities aside, there is definitely a market. In AU we have quickflix.com.au. I don't even have a working DVD player anymore. But when I did, I almost exclusively got DVDs that were hard to find even on torrent sites.

jfb 11y ago

There's the obvious reason -- that digitization is expensive, relatively speaking -- but even more so, the rights to a lot of those older movies are not well defined. Many of those older movies are under contracts that have no provision for digitization, and in many cases the rightsholders who could grant a license are unknown. It's a mess.

jkestner 11y ago
And that's a great case for actually allowing copyrights to expire at some point.
e12e 11y ago
> There's the obvious reason -- that digitization is expensive Um, if it's on DVD it's already digitized.
- jfb 11y ago
  It's unfortunately not that simple. Nobody uses DVD as a mezzanine format, partly because 4:2:0 MPEG-2 at DVD data rates is unsuitable for further manipulation, and partly because the DVD rights holders may not hold the rights to republish. It's a mess.
  - e12e 11y ago
    I just meant that in the process of producing a DVD, all the material would have to have been digitized. I'm sure for some releases the production companies have gone bankrupt and/or the files are lost -- but I'd think that once digitized the masters would be kept around?
    - jfb 11y ago
      You'd like to think so, but for the most part, the digitization and prep work is done by post houses or specialist digital distribution services, and the intermediates, which cost money to preserve, are almost always discarded.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]

derefr 11y ago

I presume because the IP owner thinks the extra royalties they'd make off the streaming would be less than the cost of digitizing, metadata creation, etc.

WalterBright 11y ago
I have some record albums from the 1950's. A few years ago, I checked around and they weren't available anywhere, even used, not no-how not no-way. But recently I noticed them showing up on Amazon as mp3 downloads. Evidently, record companies are finally going through their back catalogs and making this stuff available again. It's happening more and more with old paperback books, too, showing up as kindle books or collections on a dvd. It hasn't happened yet for, say, made-for-TV movies produced in the 1970s. I also think there'd be money to be made in simply producing an online archive of Channel 7 News broadcasts from 1975. Wouldn't that be fun to look at now and then?
- zrail 11y ago
  > I also think there'd be money to be made in simply producing an online archive of Channel 7 News broadcasts from 1975. Wouldn't that be fun to look at now and then? Probably, but often this just plain doesn't exist. I tried to get footage from a news station back in the 90s and they basically said they only keep the really notable days and otherwise recycle the tape after a few years.
  - ForHackernews 11y ago
    http://www.dailydot.com/entertainment/marion-stokes-vhs-internet-archive-input/ http://www.dailydot.com/entertainment/marion-stokes-vhs-inte...
  - e12e 11y ago
    Which news station? I know public broadcasters across Europe generally keep very extensive archives (that are generally now being, or have recently been, digitized).

DanBC 11y ago

The industry argument is that old stock dilutes new purchases. That's one reason why book publishers avoid re-publishing cheap editions of out of copyright work.