Earlier quoted context omitted.
Shame GOG don't care about your privacy. When they published a profile page for you without asking first, leaking your personal data and what games you owned to anyone you had friended before, I contacted them and they just straight up said they didn't think it was a problem. No DRM is a marketing gimmick for them, they don't actually care about the privacy of their customers.
CD Projekt Red also sell Windows exclusive software (Witcher 3, Cyberpunk, etc.), which, one can argue, is also a form of DRM.
Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
161–170 of 479 posts
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#162Physical media lets you have privacy without logging when you watch media, what media you consume, how many times you consume it, or how long you consume it. You can enjoy it offline, and in 20 years long after the studio that licensed it is gone. You can give it to a friend or loan it out. Or sell it. It is yours. Meanwhile DRM media we pay full price for, or if the content is only available via streaming we pay for…
FWIW, there is some subtlety here with respect to "physical media", as something that otherwise looks like physical media can still have DRM annoying enough that you might not be able to have a functional player when you go to use your media 20 years later (particularly if your console has Internet access).
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#163Physical media lets you have privacy without logging when you watch media, what media you consume, how many times you consume it, or how long you consume it. You can enjoy it offline, and in 20 years long after the studio that licensed it is gone. You can give it to a friend or loan it out. Or sell it. It is yours. Meanwhile DRM media we pay full price for, or if the content is only available via streaming we pay for…
It's heartbreaking to see Nintendo Switch consoles on ebay with hundreds of dollars worth of eshops games. At that point you're selling an email address.
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#164As a content creator, I use DRM free leanpub.com to produce books under a Creatuve Commons license. I also give away the same books for free on my web site. To be clear, the vast majority of my income is being paid for work, so it is easy to be a little generous. I am not a corporation who has to maximize profit to shareholders.
As a consumer of content, I like purchasing books that are (sometimes watermarked) PDFs or ePub. When that is not possible, I do buy DRM books, but split my purchases between Apple, Amazon, and Google.
My wife and I have no network TV but we are happy to support content creation by paying subscriptions to Netflix, HBO, Prime, and Hulu. I could care less about owning “forever copies” of entertainment. I do want to support the industry financially.
For music, streaming services like YouTube Music and Apple Music are great for discovery, but when I find a song that I really love, I don’t mind spending $1 per song if I can get it DRM free on Amazon.
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#165Physical media lets you have privacy without logging when you watch media, what media you consume, how many times you consume it, or how long you consume it. You can enjoy it offline, and in 20 years long after the studio that licensed it is gone. You can give it to a friend or loan it out. Or sell it. It is yours. Meanwhile DRM media we pay full price for, or if the content is only available via streaming we pay for…
> We got scammed.
Well, depends on how you look at it and how comfortable you are forgetting about how it looked before you could buy online.
I pay for convenience which is a service rather than tangible good.
If I need a book for my research, I would prefer to have access to it immediately rather than wait two weeks to get it from overseas. My time is valuable and the pause on the project or inconvenience of not having the book for a week or two cost me much more than price of the book.
If I want to watch a movie with my kids I am fine renting the movie for the price of the DVD even if I know I could be watching the DVD multiple times. Most times we do not re-watch movies anyway and it is worth to me to be able to do something with my kids on a whim rather than have to plan it.
If I pay for Spotify I understand I don't own all those titles. But, for a price of half a CD per month I get access to as many titles as I can listen to. This lets me discover new music on a whim. Something, that was not possible when I was buying physical CDs in a music store. Also I paid A LOT more for CDs than I pay currently for access to much more music.
But I agree things should be called properly without creating false impression that you own something rather than pay for a time-limited service.
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#166Physical media lets you have privacy without logging when you watch media, what media you consume, how many times you consume it, or how long you consume it. You can enjoy it offline, and in 20 years long after the studio that licensed it is gone. You can give it to a friend or loan it out. Or sell it. It is yours. Meanwhile DRM media we pay full price for, or if the content is only available via streaming we pay for…
"The books stopped working" is a fantastic writing prompt for a dystopian novel.
Take a look at this great story from Richard Stallman:
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#167Physical media lets you have privacy without logging when you watch media, what media you consume, how many times you consume it, or how long you consume it. You can enjoy it offline, and in 20 years long after the studio that licensed it is gone. You can give it to a friend or loan it out. Or sell it. It is yours. Meanwhile DRM media we pay full price for, or if the content is only available via streaming we pay for…
You're right. I've returned to buying only physical media -- haven't purchased an online format for 6 months+. I agree, we got played.
About a year ago, Amazon changed the verbiage on the ui from "you own this movie" to "you purchased this movie". That was my clue and trigger to change.
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#168Physical media lets you have privacy without logging when you watch media, what media you consume, how many times you consume it, or how long you consume it. You can enjoy it offline, and in 20 years long after the studio that licensed it is gone. You can give it to a friend or loan it out. Or sell it. It is yours. Meanwhile DRM media we pay full price for, or if the content is only available via streaming we pay for…
"The books stopped working" is a fantastic writing prompt for a dystopian novel.
The door refused to open. It said, "Five cents, please."
He searched his pockets. No more coins; nothing. "I’ll pay you tomorrow," he told the door. Again he tried the knob. Again it remained locked tight. "What I pay you," he informed it, "is in the nature of a gratuity; I don’t have to pay you."
"I think otherwise," the door said. "Look in the purchase contract you signed when you bought this conapt."
- Ubik, Philip K Dick, 1969
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7444685-the-door-refused-to...
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#169Physical media lets you have privacy without logging when you watch media, what media you consume, how many times you consume it, or how long you consume it. You can enjoy it offline, and in 20 years long after the studio that licensed it is gone. You can give it to a friend or loan it out. Or sell it. It is yours. Meanwhile DRM media we pay full price for, or if the content is only available via streaming we pay for…
> We got scammed
Not everyone got scammed. I've exclusively purchased physical media or 'acquired' it in DRM-free ways. Piracy is one option yes, but things like GOG are a legal and DRM-free way to get media, which is why I actually buy from them. I only buy digital if I don't care about losing the media, like a movie I just want to watch at a friends place that's not available on a streaming service.
Never understood why people didn't see this earlier. Thankfully many things are available digitally thanks to the work of digital archivists (aka data hoarders) who make an effort to keep media alive
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#170I ran into this when Frontier bought Verizon FIOS in my area. I suppose due to differing rights between the two companies, quite a few movies I had "bought" just disappeared from the "my purchases" page after the transition.
I never did get it resolved, just ended up eating the loss and moved to a cable/docsis type provider. All I can do now is just treat movie purchases as something less than that. Long-term rentals with some chance that it gets revoked.