Ownership is dying

[Dakota Tebaldi]

On July 10 it was announced that RedBox, the DVD-renting and streaming service, would be shutting down as its parent company, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, was liquidated following bankruptcy. Today their online streaming service became inaccessible.

You may not know it unless you're one of RedBox's victims, but they also offered movies for sale, too. A search for RedBox on the search engine of your choice results in a main page title that says "Rent or Own on DVD, Blu-Ray, 4K, OnDemand, Free Live TV". The Android app's page on Google Play says

Rentals start as low as 99¢. If you rent a movie, you’ll have 30 days to start watching it – and 48 hours to finish it. If you buy a movie, it’ll be yours to keep and watch as many times as you want. Your entire collection will be stored conveniently in your Library.

You can also download your movies & TV shows to your device to watch offline later. That means you’ll always have access to the entertainment that’s in your Library anytime, anywhere.

That sounds great, but it's not true. If you bought any digital movies from RedBox, as of today they're gone forever. You paid full price for them, RedBox told you that you "own" them and will "always have access" to them, but it doesn't matter because just like that, you no longer do. Even if you "downloaded" them, you downloaded an encrypted file that can only be played via their application after it checks to verify that you're allowed to play it, and the system that runs that check isn't running anymore, meaning that your "downloaded" movie that you "own" and can watch "anytime, anywhere" is now just a blob of unusable bytes that's just taking up storage space on whatever device you put it on.

And just so you know, this wasn't some "dirty trick" that RedBox pulled, that YOUR streaming service provider would definitely NEVER do. All of RedBox's TOS that allow them to conduct business and control content this way were 100% industry standard, and your preferred streaming service that also pretends it lets you "buy" digital media that you then "own" has the same TOS and if they ever go bankrupt or even just decide one day to not serve digital media anymore, you WILL be in the same boat.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Also happening in America...

 

[Noodles]

Also happening in America...

I have one vinyl that Amazon says is coming tomorrow and another it says is coming Tuesday. I have bought maybe, 20 or so in the past year new, and a bunch of random others for $1 each at estate or yard sales.

And I listen to them (Mostly the bought new ones though)

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

I don't buy videos except on DVDs which are mine as long as DVD players with the decoding keys still exist. Charlie Stross has a novel where there's all this media nobody can use because there's nothing wit the keys in them any more, so when the bad guys make a simulation of pre-space America it's stuck in the '60s. But I don't think I have to care about that long a long term.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

You can still find older Pioneer Blu-Ray drives on Ebay and the like that have firmware with the keys. You need to do a little research to find out which drives are good for this, but the info is out there. If you can find a second one you might wanna buy a second one for a spare. Then rip away!

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Well, *Glasshouse* is set many many hundreds of years from now and all the hardware and most copies of digital data has been lost to bit rot and a viral attack on a superconnected civilization.

 

[Casey Pelous]

... a viral attack on a superconnected civilization.

So, basically Crowdstrike?

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

More like a cross between Christianity and the Morris Worm. Read the book.

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

I honestly can't remember the last time I played a DVD.

 

[Monica Dream]

I bought two dvd players for my computer and I am making a list of things to buy. I'm sick of streaming services playing stupid games with shit I want to watch -and charging me top dollar to put up with their games while they're at it!

 

[Tigger]

And just so you know, this wasn't some "dirty trick" that RedBox pulled, that YOUR streaming service provider would definitely NEVER do. All of RedBox's TOS that allow them to conduct business and control content this way were 100% industry standard, and your preferred streaming service that also pretends it lets you "buy" digital media that you then "own" has the same TOS and if they ever go bankrupt or even just decide one day to not serve digital media anymore, you WILL be in the same boat.

All online services come to an end, no matter how huge and untouchable the corporation looks. Its not just "owning" online media but also any device which requires a server beyond your control to work.

I lost movies when Sainsbury shut down their online entertainment service and I lost a chunk of functionality from an Iomega NAS beacuse it needed a server to intervene to provide that feature. The server got shut down even before Iomega ceased to exist.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

I remember when Microsoft shut down all their "Plays for Sure" servers and I was telling everyone they should have called it "You're played for sure".

 

[Tirellia]

I have a basic rule of not being prepared to pay more than £0.99 for any digital book, film or whatever because it might not exist a week later. I treat it as a donation. If I get to download and keep a copy I am shocked.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Apple killed encrypted music and Amazon and Google followed suit like 20 years ago, and a number of authors are requiring Amazon publish their books without DRM. Some publishers, like Hachette, are blocking this.

 

[Imnotgoing Sideways]

Unless I can hold it in my hands and operate it without some sort of online link, I assume I don't own it. If there is a TOS, text search for the terms "limited", "notification", and "license" to see what it means to use what you paid for. No need to read the whole thing.
That said; my watch is mechanical, my car was made in 1962, and my "cloud" is an open source box in the corner of my cabinet.

 

[Monica Dream]

and my "cloud" is an open source box in the corner of my cabinet.

Yeah, I have a few r/homelabs laying around my bedroom too

 

[Jopsy Pendragon]

I honestly can't remember the last time I played a DVD.

There's dry spells between new content on the streamers I'm subscribed to during which I go back to my dvd's when that happens. I've got a lot of random stuff that I picked up for $1-$10 each. =) I don't resort to it much but I've probably watched 15-20 dvd's this year. =)

 

[Govi]

Many older movies and television series are only available on DVD or as used VHS. To watch something like "Johnny Stecchino" means buying the DVD -- no streaming service offers it that we could find. DVDs, etc., will probably follow the path of vinyl LPs. There are things DVDs do well (fast backwards, FFW, for examples) that streaming services are all over the place doing, none of them quite as good. And, of course, you're screwed with a streaming service if your internet service goes down or the streaming service has a technical glitch.

Because we're both now hard of hearing, we frequently have to "rewind" to view a scene again; having a good reliable interface to do that is an essential part of the enjoyment of a performance.

Most of what we watch is streamed -- the convenience is undeniable. But an evening watching an interesting movie that's available only on DVD remains a great pleasure for us.