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You Don't Really Own the Digital Movies You Buy (2021)

nytimes.com

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Re: You Don't Really Own the Digital Movies You Buy (2021)

#51

Post by swayvil »

ShadowBanThis01 wrote: post #50
swayvil wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luckily us parrot enthusiasts can get stuff in lossless flac. Sometimes even recorded from vinyl. The straight market is frankly for stockholmized suckers.

You realize that lossless FLAC doesn't address this problem at all, right? A 100% faithful copy of dynamically ruined music is... still ruined music. A vinyl source might be less compressed, though.

Ya I was thinking that. I assume that the source is something of quality. I mean what's the point otherwise? It isn't like they're selling it.

Re: You Don't Really Own the Digital Movies You Buy (2021)

#52

Post by slau »

acidburnNSA wrote: post #44
passwordoops wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>ripping them to disk... and is legal I like your system and am thinking of setting up something similar. But, correct me if I'm wrong, I thought ripping was always illegal. Or is ripping for personal use without intent to distribute ok?

Ripping a personal collection for personal use is legal.

Depending on your current location, the size of the collection, whether you’re the original purchaser of the physical copies, and a million other variables.

Re: You Don't Really Own the Digital Movies You Buy (2021)

#53

Post by cafeinux »

avgcorrection wrote: post #33

Movies? Absolutely the thing I care the least about owning. Little things take up so much space for something that I at most want to watch again every three years.

If I look at my (now old) DVD collection, I realise I've not watched them for... 10 years at least. There's only one movie that I get the urge to watch at least once a year, if not more, and for some unknown reason, it's Shrek. And I don't even own the DVD. I guess that one I should buy.

Re: You Don't Really Own the Digital Movies You Buy (2021)

#55

Post by CatWChainsaw »

1970-01-01 wrote: post #12

Wait until they discover the current state of video game consoles. How can I ever own a streaming game?

Admittedly, Weird Uncle Nintendo is still pretty good about selling game cartridges and not mandating always-online play. But they're once again the industry outlier.

Re: You Don't Really Own the Digital Movies You Buy (2021)

#56

Post by rpdillon »

acidburnNSA wrote: post #44
passwordoops wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>ripping them to disk... and is legal I like your system and am thinking of setting up something similar. But, correct me if I'm wrong, I thought ripping was always illegal. Or is ripping for personal use without intent to distribute ok?

Ripping a personal collection for personal use is legal.

But just to clarify: a DVD loaned by a library doesn't fall under a "personal collection", right? It seems like it would be hard to argue Fair Use if you're ripping a loaner.

Re: You Don't Really Own the Digital Movies You Buy (2021)

#57

Post by rpdillon »

crooked-v wrote: post #37

Companies even using the word "Buy" for situations like this should be illegal.

I rarely agree with "make it illegal" solutions, but in this case, I think you're exactly right. Slapping a "Buy" button on something that is ultimately a rental seems like a deceptive practice. Too bad it's industry standard.

Re: You Don't Really Own the Digital Movies You Buy (2021)

#58

Post by acidburnNSA »

rpdillon wrote: post #56
acidburnNSA wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ripping a personal collection for personal use is legal.

But just to clarify: a DVD loaned by a library doesn't fall under a "personal collection", right? It seems like it would be hard to argue Fair Use if you're ripping a loaner.

True for real libraries. But little free libraries I mention are little neighborhood boxes with free stuff in them that you can take for keeps, at which it becomes part of your personal collection.

Re: You Don't Really Own the Digital Movies You Buy (2021)

#59

Post by ShadowBanThis01 »

swayvil wrote: post #51
ShadowBanThis01 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You realize that lossless FLAC doesn't address this problem at all, right? A 100% faithful copy of dynamically ruined music is... still ruined music. A vinyl source might be less compressed, though.

Ya I was thinking that. I assume that the source is something of quality. I mean what's the point otherwise? It isn't like they're selling it.

Indeed. But so many people just don't know what the problem is.

Re: You Don't Really Own the Digital Movies You Buy (2021)

#60

Post by tech2 »

ShadowBanThis01 wrote: post #49
vidanay wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The strangest part is, the compression has absolutely zero benefit. From the listening experience, to the production process, to the business aspects of making music, it has no redeeming qualities.

Exactly. I'd say it's the saddest part. The one time I remember reading that some record exec was challenged on it, and the excuse was "nobody wants to have the quietest CD in the changer." WHAT? As if anyone on the planet would go over to the changer, eject this allegedly offending CD, look at the label, and then declare, "Welp, I'm never buying another album put out on Arista records!" The utter stupidity of it is…

> My 1996 Mustang's CD player has a "Compress" button on it, to make listening to highly dynamic music more feasible in a noisy car environment.

I believe _this_ is where the issue mostly originated (well, radio, really). Radio is already massively compressed, and many people were either listening to things in the car, on some tiny little radio in the kitchen, or with awful cheap headphones with their walkman's built-in radio.

All of these weren't great environments to start with, and the dynamic range of radio was tiny given the overall bandwidth available to most FM stations.

So, companies compress, people get used to it, and thus the horror continues.

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