I own a bajillion DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs. I love movies and television. I love owning my favorite shows so I can re-watch whenever I want. When digital streaming came along, I made the switch happily because I simply didn't have the space to store all that physical media. But then we all found out a sad truth... shows and movies you bought and paid for can be taken from you with absolutely no recourse. You pay for the right to stream something, and that right can be stripped from you at any time when a studio removes it from Google Play or iTunes or wherever.
So back to buying physical media, right? The studios can't break into your house and take those back!
Except they don't have to. Because physical media isn't made to last, and some studios know that... but don't give a shit. They got your money, and that's all they care about. Something this video talks about in depth, mostly focusing on the abomination that is Warner Bros., who is a fucking shitty company for many reasons, and this is a big one...
It's absolutely bonkers that those of us who do the right thing and pay for the stuff we want to own get punished for it. And yet here we are.
Buy physical media? It rots and no longer works.
Buy digital copies? Studios can strip them from you at any time.
Subscribe to a studio's streaming service directly? Studios can remove those shows even more easily.
The only option left is to buy physical media, then "back it up" by ripping it to your computer. Legally, you do have a right to have a backup so long as you continue to own the original media. Which is to say that you can't buy a DVD, rip it, then sell the DVD. Except... it's illegal to circumnavigate copy protection to actually make the backup. And of course DVDs and Blu-Rays have copy protection.
It's a total load of shit. Personally I am of the belief that once you buy a DVD or Blu-Ray or digital copy of something, you should maintain the right to view it regardless of what happens. If a DVD rots, you should have the right to purchase replacement media at cost or get a digital copy for free. And once something is sold digitally, studios don't get to take it back from you. They must provide a way for you to get what you paid for. Or else they shouldn't be allowed to sell it in the first place.
But powerful studios own our politicians, so that's expecting too much.
THEY doing illegal shit to strip you of what you bought is forgivable. YOU doing illegal shit to have access to what you paid for is not.
Typical.
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I have a bazillion movies as well, but I did rip most of them to a home media server. I say “most” because I need to rebuild the server and just haven’t gotten around to it, but I keep buying movies anyway.
Backing up the movies was a real pain as I had so, so many movies to do this to, but I persisted and now I can watch my movies from anywhere with a good internet connection thanks to Plex. I also use libib.com to catalogue my collection (they have a mobile app as well) so I can avoid accidental second copy purchases, update to better resolution when available, and just generally keep track of things…
Everything you said. Amen. 100%! What drives me even more bonkers about Warner Bros is that they are the one studio who will not honor expired digital copy codes.
Great post on a subject many of us are frustrated with. I have a lot of DVDs and Blu-Rays as well. And a fair number of digital copies (mostly iTunes). The ripping down of physical media to digital was something I did regularly some years ago. Then it got to be time consuming – especially for Blu-Ray – and I ended up just hoping that as time marches on, that I would enjoy the DVD and Blu-Ray movies until one day they didn’t work anymore. So far, I’ve only had Laserdiscs rot on me as they were more susceptible to humidity and other less than optimal storage conditions.
The making a backup of digital movies was another process I did each time I purchased a movie off iTunes or redeemed a digital copy. But as updates to various tools ceased, so did those backups. At this point, I now just ensure I have 3 copies of my digital media in 3 different places.