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The deception of “buying” digital movies

worldofmatthew.com

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Re: The deception of “buying” digital movies

#311

Post by dghlsakjg »

boros2me wrote: post #36

One idea I keep thinking about (which I'm sure interferes with some sort of copyright law) is: 1. User buys a physical copy of a movie/music 2. Instead of sending the disc to their house, it's sent to a storage facility 3. In the storage facility a digital backup is made and uploaded to a cloud storage 4. User is given access to the backup which they can watch/listen to 5. User would be the owner of said physical cop…

1DollarScan.com is an interesting service that does this for books. You can order books direct from Amazon, and they will digitize them for you

Re: The deception of “buying” digital movies

#312

Post by SkyBelow »

volleygman180 wrote: post #263
stewx wrote: post #7

One under-appreciated limitation on digital movies is geographic restrictions. You buy a bunch of iTunes movies in Canada, then move to the USA, and you no longer have the right to watch them anymore due to licensing. Another significant issue with digital movies and games is the inability to resell the content once you're done with it. You can sell your DVDs at a yard sale or on eBay but not your iTunes movies. IMO,…

> re-sale of digital goods Sounds a lot like a problem that NFTs could fix

That would be one way of handling the technical how, but it isn't technical problems that are stopping companies from doing this. Places like Steam already have digital marketplaces yet games aren't resalable.

Re: The deception of “buying” digital movies

#313

Post by evouga »

vel0city wrote: post #308
fsflover wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't "buy the performance" but a ticket for a certain time.

You don't by the streaming movie but a license for an indefinite time. And how do you know what the limits of the ticket or the license are? You read the document you're agreeing to when buying the ticket.

Many people have already said this, but: buying a ticket to a one-time event is not analogous to buying a license to watch a movie in perpetuity.

A better analogy, that does not involve a one-time event, would be a lifetime pass to concert venue. You buy this pass, only to have the venue refuse to honor it a few years later.

Re: The deception of “buying” digital movies

#314

Post by anjbe »

The article mentions GOG’s movie selection (which is indeed extremely limited: https://www.gog.com/en/movies). It’s worth pointing out that Vimeo also provides some DRM‐free digital downloads through its “On Demand” imprint (https://vimeo.com/ondemand/oxyana). Like GOG, though, it mostly contains works of a particular niche (in this case, documentaries and short films).

I’ve been hard‐pressed to find any other way to purchase DRM‐free movies.

Re: The deception of “buying” digital movies

#315

Post by maerF0x0 »

misterbishop wrote: post #173
maerF0x0 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are more important things than whether your $10 Hercules purchase still works in 20 years. How you handle the small things is how you handle everything. I'm glad to see something breaking their trance. Let's hope they keep going!

nonsense. the political activity required to solve the big problems would sweep these little bullshit issues off the table.

I think the point was lost. My point if the requisite care isn't there to deal with small issues, then you're not gonna have the care to deal with things that demand so much more (big things).

maybe an analogy like if you cant be bothered to pick up one sock, odds are you wont pickup all your laundry?

Re: The deception of “buying” digital movies

#316

Post by cxr »

dawnerd wrote: post #232
cxr wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have started a modest Blu-Ray/4k Blu-Ray collection. For me, it is by far the best movie experience I've had with any format. I'm a big proponent of physical media (incl. ownership), but I can't vouch for this at all. I recently pulled out the Blu-Ray player, plugged it in, and picked up a dozen or so movies from the library. What struck me about the experience was how much worse it was from what I remembered. Yo…

I think your problem is using a Blu-ray player. If you use what I’d suspect most people use, an Xbox or PlayStation, the experience is much, much better. Even better is just using makemkv and ripping just the movie. Also works for 4k if you have the correct drive (there’s some inexpensive drives you have flash firmware)

My problem is with Blu-Ray. The moment where you're subverting the Blu-Ray format, you're also subverting the argument that Blu-Ray provides the best experience of any format.

I had a whole paragraph in that post (but that I ended up deleting) about how Blu-Ray would be great if "Blu-Ray" were as simple as a single-file filesystem with an open media container format at the root, burned/pressed onto a BD physical disc (or some other high-density optical media). Like the digital equivalent of a reel (or set of reels) of 35mm film. But that's not what it is.

Re: The deception of “buying” digital movies

#317

Post by talkingtab »

All over the world people take a stand against tyranny. This is just internet tyranny. The button on Amazon says "buy" but the fine print says "borrow".

A class action legal solution with a lawyer would mean that even if we won, each user would be award one free movie while the legal team got millions.

At the very least every single person in the US who ever clicked "buy" can take Amazon to small claims court. Maybe you lose, but Amazon will get the message.

In New Hampshire a small business took Instagram to small claims court for terminating their account without reason. Instagram sent lawyers, but the case was appealed to the NH Supreme Court for review. (They sent it back!) Imagine if every person who had an account terminated for no reason or lost access to a movie they "bought" then took the case to small claims court.

The problem is that Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook can buy laws. I'm not saying these are the only ones, just big internet ones. And the courts enforce these laws. Sounds anti-democratic to me.

Re: The deception of “buying” digital movies

#318

Post by denton-scratch »

astorsnk wrote: post #180
AlecSchueler wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe iTunes wasn't a good example but it has happened to me with other services. I live in the Netherlands where I bought a subscription for the Formula 1 TV service. Last year I was in the UK visiting family and was unable to watch races there, despite havng already paid for them, as the geo restrictions were different.

>> Last year I was in the UK visiting family and was unable to watch races there, despite havng already paid for them, as the geo restrictions were different. Yep, thank sucks. You can thank brexit for that. AFAIK services offered in one EU country have to work throughout the EU (so if you were in Germany it would have worked). This meant that on holiday (coming from UK to Spain) a few years back I was able to watch…

Nothing to do with Brexit.

Re: The deception of “buying” digital movies

#319

Post by janzaib »

netsharc wrote: post #73
josh_fyi wrote: post #10

Has anyone tried a legal challenge to the word "buy"? It seems like a straightforward case of misrepresentation.

There's probably wording in the agreement (linked next to the checkbox we automatically tick before clicking the button) that says you're buying a license to watch the movie as long as the movie is available on the platform. There are other definitions of buy a movie, e.g. buy the IP so you're allowed to make sequels.

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