Digital Rights Management Might Ruin My Next Vacation
10 | We shouldn’t have to worry about losing access to stuff we’ve purchased without getting some kind of equivalent compensation.
In The Deception of “Buying” Digital Movies, Matthew Morgan summarizes the key issue with purchasing movies, songs, and other content in digital-only formats.
You are not provided any ownership of the content you have bought. Only that the content you “bought” will be “generally” available. Amazon is allowed to “sell” you a movie where they don’t have perpetual and irrevocable license to the movie they are selling. Leading to movies purchased being taken away from customers when the copyright pulls the rights from Amazon. The same situation applies to other internet storefronts that claim to sell digital movies and TV shows, such as iTunes.
Him name-dropping Amazon hits a personal note for me. Last week, while house-sitting for my parents I wanted to binge one of my favorite old shows: Top Gear. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s a car-themed adventure show. A few years back, the BBC decided to let go of its foundational host, Jeremy Clarkson and Amazon was quick to green light a successor show by Clarkson, Top Gear’s lead producer Andy Wilman, and then current Top Gear hosts James May and Richard Hammond. The new show, The Grand Tour, is nearly identical to Top Gear in structure, making it just as enjoyable. Because of this, I’ve invested a lot of my entertainment budget into Amazon Prime. Originally, even buying a subscription to MotorTrend through Prime to watch the original Top Gear. But, with a licensing shift, Top Gear left MotorTrend, and I was stuck with the spattering of episodes and specials I had bought before MotorTrend. Since then, I’ve bought multiple seasons. But I’m terrified one morning I’m going to wake up and see that the BBC decided to switch Top Gear to a completely different service, or negate my purchases entirely. I can’t even buy all of Top Gear on DVD or BlueRay to supplement my collection! After a brief search, I was only able to find 7 out of 23 season (worth watching) on Amazon. I can’t even find all the other’s on Ebay. Partially, because the show had so many editions and bundles. Between themed box sets of certain specials, specials released individually, and extended cuts it’s impossible to find exactly what you want from a 20-year-old show sourced from American Dads’ DVD collections.
Basically, we shouldn’t have to worry about losing access to stuff we’ve purchased without getting some kind of equivalent compensation.