Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies

nofilmschool.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 479 posts

Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies

#281

Post by judge2020 »

rchaud wrote: post #189

> "Apple contends that '[n]o reasonable consumer would believe' that purchased content would remain on the iTunes platform indefinitely," Weasel-worded legal arguments like this is why I don't use Apple Music, Spotify, Youtube Premium or anything where the final product is not a DRM-free file sitting on my hard drive. As much as Blockbuster is considered a dinosaur, you could buy and sell used games and movies there.…

If it helps, YouTube doesn’t do DRM on music and you can use YouTube-dl to download as many songs as you’d like for personal use.

Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies

#282

Post by lofi_lory »

ineedasername wrote: post #227
lofi_lory wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironically, DRM drives me towards Z-Lib and Libgen, when I happily payed No Starch for their stuff. Especially their bundles are a smart move in the digital age. Also, see e.g. Steam, you cannot charge for these digital goods the way you used to. It's shifting towards (searchable) collections, not just individual books. It's ridiculous, when digital edition cost almost as much as print. They are emotionally and funct…

I used to work in the industry: Print really isn't much more expensive to produce than ebooks, so there's not a huge different in cost. A hardcover will cost around $3-$4 in printing costs. Even still, ebooks can be a good deal. To use a recent example that wouldn't yet have any digital discounts, there's the John Boehner book [0]. As of this comment, it has an MSRP of $29.99. The Kindle version is $14.99. At actual…

Thanks for the insights!

Still I think ebooks are a different product. At least in my head. I have a different emotional relationship with a physical book. The information within isn't in competition with the endless a "wealth" of information available legally or not.

For text books piracy is a victimless "crime" in my case, as having a digital copy or not, is independent from financial loss above a certain price tag. That is, I can't afford most text books, so I won't buy them; piracy does not influence the income of the publisher. On the other hand, if I really need/want to buy a book, I am likely gonna get much more intimate with it. Let's face it, digital copies are much more likely not to be read. Maybe only indexed and searched as part of a collection. Digital has a different value. (Although, I ofc understand the superficial dilemma here.)

This is the situation we got IMO.

Side note: You, as someone from the industry, I assume we can both agree that at the very least, a free digital copy should be included with every physical one, right? That just silly and artificial to separate, if you make an argument for the value of content and presentation.

Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies

#283

Post by turtleofdeath »

Mikho wrote: post #280

It's not so much about nature of DRM streaming vs having a movie on your disk. The whole debate is really about Apple misleading users into overpaying for a mere rent of a movie. When you buy something and have a complete ownershio you treat this expense differently than renting expense. You dont pay full price of a thing just to rent it.

What’s not misleading about offering a “Buy” option and a lower-priced “Rent” option?

Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies

#285

Post by datavirtue »

andrewzah wrote: post #246
lrvick wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Former me would agree with you, but I hit my breaking point when I saw Microsoft eBooks stop working, or shows I liked pulled from streaming services. There is no permanence no matter how much I pay when media has DRM. I for one only pull dvds out of the box once ever. It is easy enough to rip DVDs or Blu-rays to a NAS and use Kodi. Sadly that option is becoming less and less possible as many shows become streaming p…

This is why I built a home media server with Jellyfin and Navidrome. Nothing will "go away", short of a fire or multiple drives failing at once. I keep a physical copy in a separate house, and back up the essentials with duplicacy to backblaze b2. In the last few years I've spent more than ever on cds through discogs.com. "Sadly that option is becoming less and less possible as many shows become streaming platform ex…

Not to mention instant loading and the sheer bliss of being offline if you want.

Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies

#286

Post by datavirtue »

Loughla wrote: post #154
lrvick wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Former me would agree with you, but I hit my breaking point when I saw Microsoft eBooks stop working, or shows I liked pulled from streaming services. There is no permanence no matter how much I pay when media has DRM. I for one only pull dvds out of the box once ever. It is easy enough to rip DVDs or Blu-rays to a NAS and use Kodi. Sadly that option is becoming less and less possible as many shows become streaming p…

The only reason I built a home media server was because I was sick of the splintering of streaming services. Now we buy, rip, and store physical media. Honestly, I think that it's something that, if people understood how easy it was today, more people would do.

I got it all figured out but I don't think it's easy. I have a stack of discs awaiting the ambition to start swapping and ripping and converting again.

Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies

#287

Post by lofi_lory »

SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #168
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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, Phili…

What?! I got that book somewhere. That's hilarious, I didn't expect that. Now I have to read it.

Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies

#288

Post by datavirtue »

BruiseLee wrote: post #207
cblconfederate wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine a bank marketing itself as "No reasonable consumer would believe that their deposits will remain in the bank indefinitely" This is a really awe-inspiring, a complete rejection of the concept of ownership

Actually that is correct in many countries (including US). After a period of inactivity (typically 3-5 years) the bank is required to turn over the money from inactive accounts to the state. This process is called escheatment. I'm not joking.

That is a protection. The government holds the money and you can apply for it anytime. As can your relatives. Have you never received unclaimed funds you didn't know were due to you?

Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies

#289

Post by drewzero1 »

fsflover wrote: post #214
ghaff wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>the ability to use it has been greatly diminished Really? I have tons of music ripped from CDs on my iPhone and I can trivially play that in my car. I have CD players in my car (which I never use) and attached to my stereo (which I rarely use). It's not that the ability to play CDs (or rip them and play them) has been diminished but a lot of people prefer to just use a streaming service. I'll grant that many people…

> I have tons of music ripped from CDs Are you suggesting that it's a simple and convenient thing to do for the public?

Are you suggesting that it's not? Maybe I'm out of touch with both the state of technology and the general public (guilty on both counts), but last I checked major operating systems all came with CD ripping software included. Do people really not have CD drives any more or something?

Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies

#290

Post by mygoodaccount »

BruiseLee wrote: post #207
cblconfederate wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine a bank marketing itself as "No reasonable consumer would believe that their deposits will remain in the bank indefinitely" This is a really awe-inspiring, a complete rejection of the concept of ownership

Actually that is correct in many countries (including US). After a period of inactivity (typically 3-5 years) the bank is required to turn over the money from inactive accounts to the state. This process is called escheatment. I'm not joking.

You've implied it's permanent transfer of ownership to the state. It's not.

From wikipedia: "Escheats are performed on a revocable basis. Thus, if property has escheated to a State but the original owner subsequently is found, escheatment is revoked and ownership of the property reverts to that original owner."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escheat#United_States

Post reply on HN