Is there anyone out there like me who scoffs at the idea of buying a video or music title from a 3rd party like Apple or Amazon only to be restricted in listening or watching this media on their own services?
Can I transfer my purchases away from Amazon over to Google if I no longer enjoy Prime? I’m not sure that question is answered and if it is I missed the answer.
It seems to me like crypto technologies like NFTs can be put to good use in this market. Instead of proving that you own the rights to use an Ape as your Twitter profile pic, we can use this same technology to prove that we own a copy of a particular movie and can stream it where we wish or download a copy and have it play in Plex for instance.
Everyone wins. Consumers have a choice of who to buy from and who to stream with. Consumers are less likely to look at the black market after making ownership of these titles easier so the whole industry wins.
Incorporating an idea like this is a feature request even if it requires industry coordination. Anyway if it’s not a “feature” someone can just move the thread into General…that’s not the important point.
I like the idea. I don’t purchase content from streaming services for similar reasons. If you look at the t&C’s, taking Amazon for example, when you purchase a film you are purchasing an indefinite license to stream content from their service so long as they’re able to host it. If they change contracts with the distributor or decide to they no longer want to host the file it’s the consumer that ends up losing.
It’ll be a long time, if ever, that the industry big players decide to get onboard with the idea though.
And this is precisely why I have a Plex server. All too often, content gets removed from their servers for whatever reason (cancel-culture, popularity, etc.). I just buy the DVDs/Blu-Rays and rip them. Then I have a physical copy that cannot be removed (along with an onsite backup and an offsite backup of the content).
maybe have a better read of the terms of the license, not saying i agree with how they operate - but rewarding them with your money and agreeing to their terms sets you up to fail.
A service called Movies Anywhere - Welcome | Movies Anywhere might have you covered. Sign up for that and integrate it with the streaming service you purchased from. (I have used Microsoft’s Movies & TV for years until I discovered Plex and started ripping the DVDs I had collected). The promise is that if you for some reason choose to use another provider or the one you had shuts down you can still get your movies without paying extra on another participating service.
The above image shows the participating services. It still won’t get around the DRM so you can just play it. For instance, I can’t play the downloaded SpiderMan: Homecoming (The last movie I bought using this service) I bought from Movies & TV on anything other than a Windows/Microsoft device because it will first check if I’m able to watch it.
Seeing as I couldn’t use it on other devices, I had to go buy it again on BluRay just so that I could watch on Plex.
[Edit] Because the rest of the world only exists in our collective imaginations, this service is unfortunately only available to US residents. The rest of us are stuck… which is why I had to buy most of my stuff again.
