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The case for physical media ownership

dervis.de

211–220 of 392 posts

Re: The case for physical media ownership

#211
post #172

Since I don't see it mentioned yet in the comments: In 2011, movie studios created a digital ownership service called Ultraviolet. You could own titles in your "UltraViolet Digital Rights Locker" and access them from multiple devices via third-party streaming services. [1] "The UltraViolet Digital Rights Locker will keep track of all of the consumers’ UltraViolet digital purchases, whether they bought a movie or tele…

Extremely minor technicality, but one worth bringing up:

Ultraviolet shut down, but mainly because studios had already signed onto a shared locker service called "Movies Anywhere" that Disney did join. Ultraviolet libraries could be migrated over, for the most part.

That being said, it was a manual and voluntary process most consumers likely ignored or didn't participate in, so in essence it could be seen as a revocation of licenses. I did the migration and lost no titles, but it was the final nail in my personal arc that made me move wholesale to Plex + NAS (now Jellyfin + NAS).

Re: The case for physical media ownership

#212
I love physical media as a ritual, but loathe it as a storage medium - it's fragile, it rots, and manufacturers can't be trusted to create long-lasting products anymore. Not to mention the fact that UHD drives used to rip modern content are almost entirely defunct, with the remaining few going for nearly half a grand in the current climate.

Personally, in light of AI getting a hand-wave on massive piracy for training data purposes, I think we're ripe to redo copyright entirely. Common-sense stuff like barring DRM on content a year after its initial release date, allowing consumers to transcode content freely for personal use, and finally stripping copyright from abandoned (i.e., no longer sold) content such that "lost media" can be freely shared without legal consequence. There's so, so many reforms we need to make to reflect how content works in the modern era, in a way that rewards content creators but creates a more permissive environment for archiving, sharing, and modifications.

Re: The case for physical media ownership

#213
The big greedy corporations try to milk the customer here.

The US government either tolerates it, or benefits from it via kick-backs. The orange king is the ultimate tool box for others - corruption has never been more rampant than now.

I also see the attempts to eliminate physical media or deny right-to-repair, as associated with the age sniffing requirement or the fight by governments against VPNs. They want more control, at the expense of the end user. And they also lie about their goals, although in really stupid ways - age sniffing as fake-rationale to "protect the children", as means to disown and devalue freedom of citizens.

Re: The case for physical media ownership

#214
post #158
post #3

Just pirate it. They can't tell you this but there's a quagmire of rights, licenses, agreements, treaties... and you can untangle this Goridan Knot by just pirating, especially media, for your own use. There are pixel perfect 4k drm-free rips out there made by people who poured thousands of hours into understanding codecs. They will work on any platform, forever, you can stream them or play offline. These rips can be…

Yes, of course it's easier to pirate it. The problem is that its unethical (and illegal). That you find it inconvenient to pay for things you want is not a valid justification.

[deleted]

Re: The case for physical media ownership

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> due to our content licensing agreements, you will no longer be able to access your previously purchased content So when they 'sold' the content, they were already aware that they were selling something with an expiry date. Why would you even agree to a license to resell something with a time limit? There should be some kind of law that says that any license agreement intended for reselling to the public should be a…

And if the license is not perpetual, there needs to be laws that stop companies from using the terms “buy.” They should have to state it for what it is: a long term rental. Sony could have up front disclosed “You are paying $x.yz to rent access to this media until [date]” I think it’s important for consumers that this verbiage is applied to everything where the license is non-transferable and not perpetual. Stop call…

Alternately, we could have some regulation that says that if you license your content to anyone in a way that allows them to provide access with a "buy" button, the license automatically becomes perpetual and irrevocable.

Re: The case for physical media ownership

#216

I love physical media as a ritual, but loathe it as a storage medium - it's fragile, it rots, and manufacturers can't be trusted to create long-lasting products anymore. Not to mention the fact that UHD drives used to rip modern content are almost entirely defunct, with the remaining few going for nearly half a grand in the current climate. Personally, in light of AI getting a hand-wave on massive piracy for training…

[deleted]

Re: The case for physical media ownership

#217
post #3

Just pirate it. They can't tell you this but there's a quagmire of rights, licenses, agreements, treaties... and you can untangle this Goridan Knot by just pirating, especially media, for your own use. There are pixel perfect 4k drm-free rips out there made by people who poured thousands of hours into understanding codecs. They will work on any platform, forever, you can stream them or play offline. These rips can be…

Then you need a NAS, a backup process (backing up large collections of movies to S3 is actually pretty expensive). You need to keep your NAS up to date. You need to install / configure Plex, oops that's closed source now, uninstall that and get Jellyfin. Eventually your NAS hardware will be outdated and you'll have to get a new one and migrate your files over.

Even for technical people this is a pain over time. Nothing like just having a disc that can last 50+ years if properly stored.

Re: The case for physical media ownership

#218
post #44

I agree with the sentiment implied by the author, but I would reword it slightly. If you don't have the freedom to share something, you don't own it. I disagree with the interpretation that it needs to be held physically. Digital ownership is still ownership. I go out of my way to find music on Bandcamp, games on GOG, and rip movies myself using MakeMKV. I wish I could encourage people to continue embracing physical…

[flagged]

Re: The case for physical media ownership

#219
post #217
post #3

Just pirate it. They can't tell you this but there's a quagmire of rights, licenses, agreements, treaties... and you can untangle this Goridan Knot by just pirating, especially media, for your own use. There are pixel perfect 4k drm-free rips out there made by people who poured thousands of hours into understanding codecs. They will work on any platform, forever, you can stream them or play offline. These rips can be…

Then you need a NAS, a backup process (backing up large collections of movies to S3 is actually pretty expensive). You need to keep your NAS up to date. You need to install / configure Plex, oops that's closed source now, uninstall that and get Jellyfin. Eventually your NAS hardware will be outdated and you'll have to get a new one and migrate your files over. Even for technical people this is a pain over time. Nothi…

>Eventually your NAS hardware will be outdated and you'll have to get a new one and migrate your files over.

I know. The little watchdog process on the NAS sees that it's 10 years old, and locks it so it won't work anymore. So annoying.

Or do you mean that you will have so many movies and shows that you yearn for more storage? Because these two things aren't the same. The latter is "this is so good, I want more of it". It's like telling someone to subsist on pumpkin seeds and rainwater because if they eat anything more flavorful they'll become gluttonous.

>Nothing like just having a disc that can last 50+ years if properly stored.

There are no commercial disks that last that long, and no one can properly store them. Cold, dark, climate-controlled, pure nitrogen atmosphere? Give me a break. And how many can you even store?

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