Companies try to skirt around this by saying you're not buying the media, you're buying a license (subject to 37 pages of legalese that nobody wants to read right before they watch a movie on movie night). I really hope companies are forced to stop using the word "buy" for this type of transaction.
Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
171–180 of 479 posts
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#172Physical 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.
It is, not so much so that the concept is not without precedent ("book burnings" are quite famous throughout history), but that the book burnings will be conducted by corporations that also have all the data on those who ever read them, and not to mention they are the ones who initially made money selling them in the first place.
In fact [blank] is a fantastic writing prompt for a dystopian novel, seems like a fun little game to play with friends.
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#173Physical 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…
>PlayStation 3 store?
For what little it is worth, Sony has postponed shutting down the PS3 and PS Vita stores after backlash. The PSP store will still be shutting down this summer. Your point still stands regardless
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is already reality. Paypal shuts down inactive accounts. (And guess what they do with the positive balance.)
PayPal isn't a bank. They don't have the same obligations or protection. When a bank closes your account, they mail you a check with the balance, and that balance is insured up to $250,000. I don't know how it works in other countries, but they probably have something like the FDIC.
It's a bank in the EU
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#175Physical 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 hav…
I used to be somewhat skeptical of the convenience claim. A former colleague argued that the attraction of Napster was more about convenience than price which I didn't really buy.
But if we look at the popularity of streaming services today versus owning even DRM-free music, that would seem to support the convenience theory. (It hasn't taken off for books to the same degree but I'd guess that's in part because the vast majority of people just don't consume enough to make an all you can eat offering work.)
As perhaps both cause and effect, there's probably also something of a generational shift in which ownership of stuff you can put your hands on may just not be as appealing to many younger people, especially if they're urban dwellers without a lot of space.
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would require copyright holders to renew their copyright. 5 years for free, then $1 for the 6th year, $2 for the 7th, $4 for the 8th, $8 for the 9th, $1m for the 25th, etc.
Not every copyright holder is a massive corporation. Artists produce many pieces per year. That would cost them a lot to keep copyrights.
We could allow natural persons to hold copyright for their natural life. Their heirs, if natural persons could get a 18 year free extension (allowing any minor child of a creator to benefit from their parents IP to pay for their upbringing)
Corporations can start paying that escalating price right away.
(Edit: misread GP and removed a paragraph)
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#177Physical 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.
This reminds me of the widespread move to change from “private message” to “direct message” on platforms like facebook and twitter. A subtle hint in the UI as to how things really work.
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is why supporting DRM-free stores is important (e.g. Bandcamp for music and GOG for games).
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.
No DRM is not just about privacy, far from it.
The most important aspect is that as long as you have a compatible system and a good backup policy, you will never lose access to what you bought.
No DRM can help with privacy but they are mostly independent. There is DRM that doesn't violate your privacy, like hardware keys typical of arcade machines, oldschool copy protection and game cartridges. And I think Nintendo has privacy-preserving DRM for digital games too, the problem is that if you lose the console, you lose the game.
And as you have shown, you don't need DRM for privacy violations.
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
CD Projekt Red also sell Windows exclusive software (Witcher 3, Cyberpunk, etc.), which, one can argue, is also a form of DRM.
https://www.pcgamer.com/valves-made-cyberpunk-2077-playable-...
By adding yet another indirection. Compiling the binaries for Linux and just shipping it with a fat "no warranty" label on top would have been 100x better. Even Linux distros do that (GPL: `THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.`)
Re: Apple is sued for telling you that you're “buying” movies
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
"The books stopped working" is a fantastic writing prompt for a dystopian novel.
It is, not so much so that the concept is not without precedent ("book burnings" are quite famous throughout history), but that the book burnings will be conducted by corporations that also have all the data on those who ever read them, and not to mention they are the ones who initially made money selling them in the first place. In fact [blank] is a fantastic writing prompt for a dystopian novel, seems like a fun li…
And will we even notice when the books are “burned”? I have so many digital titles I think it would take quite a while for me to catch on if they were removed slowly enough.
Weird to think a book burning could happen right under our noses (literally!) without us even realizing.