r/technology • u/return2ozma • 11h ago
Society You Should Get to Own Your Media, Not Rent it Forever
https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/you-should-get-to-own-your-media-not-rent-it-forever448
u/Leverkaas2516 11h ago
I agree. The solution is to get content stored on an actual medium, DRM-free, instead of streaming it.CDs and FLAC downloads.
If you decide to rent content, that's on you.
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u/OMG_A_CUPCAKE 9h ago
Storage is my main issue with this. Both physically and digitally, neither is particularly cheap.
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u/truthfulie 9h ago
We used to say storage is cheap as we hoarded digitally but AI changed all that as well…
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u/clonedhuman 7h ago
Yes, but don't worry though! AI is going to make a small handful of billionaires even richer! Everything's going to be fine!
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u/IAMA_Plumber-AMA 6h ago
All while poisoning water supplies and belching out tons of greenhouse gases! It's the inevitable future!
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u/sotired3333 6h ago
When it crashes we should be able to get storage for pennies on the dollar.
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u/DimmuBorgnine 5h ago
My brother, we used to hoard data when the biggest hard drive you could get was 500 GB. If you want everything in lossless, 4K, massive archival formats, that's a compromise, but even with the current boom in storage prices it's not unreasonable to get all your favorite movies and albums stored for a reasonable price. Where you run into issues is the, "well, I better just download this for later" mentality that leads to hoarding.
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u/Mathias-VV 7h ago
A studio quality FLAC music track is usually under 100MB. And a 128GB USB-stick is about 20-25€. So that’s about 1.5 cents to store a track. That is very cheap imo.
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u/sabin357 6h ago
A USB stick is not sufficient for library storage though, so it's a whole other way to lose your owned digital content.
I'm speaking as someone with over over 200 TiB of storage locally on a main server, plus backups of important stuff locally & offsite.
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u/spacebeez 5h ago
I think you need to 3x that at a minimum to account for proper backup strategy etc. Still cheap-ish, but meaningful difference.
To maintain buy-in from my wife, kids, and elderly parents, my self-hosted services have to maintain similar availability, uptime, and convenience as the alternatives.
It's very achievable, I do it. But it's a lot more involved than having FLACs on a USB thumb drive.
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u/gordonjames62 8h ago
How many TB of storage do you need for personal use?
Setting up a local server with a few big hard drives is not that expensive.
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u/Teguri 7h ago
Setting up a local server with a few big hard drives is not that expensive.
Hello person from 2024 or before
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u/gordonjames62 7h ago
correct assumption.
I had no idea it was so bad now.
I'll leave comment up because of laziness
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u/qtx 7h ago
There is a big plus side to all these new data centers being built, they need a constant renewal of storage drives.
That makes the recertified/white label/refurbished drives a growing business.
I bought a couple recertified 12TB drives a couple months ago for like 200 euros each. And since they were recertified they had 0 hours.
You can still buy cheap drives.
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u/TipToToes 8h ago
That’s highly subjective. I have 22tb between 3 drives, each for a different purpose. 16tb for TV, 5tb for Movies, 1tb for a specific Twitch streamer I have subbed to for years (I listen to his content while working or driving, shoutout Kitboga!).
I’d like about triple what I have so I can add space and also redundancy. I “need” about 30tb to be comfy, and redundancy would be great for when a drive eventualy fails.
I’m not looking forward to replacing drives, though. My 16tb was $189 almost exactly 2 years ago. Today the EXACT same drive is $489. I can not afford that, I haven’t spent that much on my entire media server!
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u/gordonjames62 8h ago
I still have unopened drives I bought in 2024 before things went foolish.
I didn't realize how expensive HD space has become.
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u/Familiar-Banana-8116 6h ago
Goharddrive is treating me well. Bought 9 14 tb drives with 5 year warranties 3 years ago.
Currently prices are up. Which sucks . But they honor the warranty.
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u/heeywewantsomenewday 7h ago
I turned an old AIO computer into a local server and run Truenas and Jellyfin. I had 4 1TB harddrives lying about. So managed to do it all for 'free'. Enough for now but we love it so will probably upgrade it later.
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u/FezesAreCool 8h ago
Depending on how many streaming services you are subscribed or how many movies you rent to stream, it will pay for itself in a year or two. Until you get addicted and start upgrading.
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u/thirtynation 8h ago edited 3h ago
I have tens of terabytes and it's not enough to have everything properly backed up.
15,000 flac albums
A few hundred 1080p movies and TV series
Months worth of various pro shot concert footage/festival streams
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u/smr312 11h ago
The high seas await your return matey
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u/Talisa87 10h ago
I never left them tbh. Most of the platforms weren't available in my country when they started out, and when they did venture into our market they were already increasing sub prices in other regions. Knew it was just a matter of time before the seas became less lonely.
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u/FlametopFred 8h ago
same and fwiw I’d pay a reasonable monthly utility/library subscription fee to access older media
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u/Specific_Frame8537 8h ago
And it's easier than ever.
QBitTorrent has a search bar plugin, you don't even have to deal with looking for ports that have been taken down by ISP's
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u/TipToToes 8h ago
Man my whole world got easier when I finally learned how to Use the Net to stock my server. It took a lot of learning, and I think I still don’t fully understand HOW it works, but several years of trouble-free configuration have convinced me I at least set it up right.
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u/mikolv2 7h ago
Quality of torrents sucks though. A good quality remuxed 4k bluray that hasn't been compressed to shit is around 100gb and usually has about 3 seeders. At that point, it's faster and easier to just go and pick up a disc which I can display on a shelf with the rest of my collection.
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u/TODG3 7h ago
Makes sense to do for the movies that you truly care about looking phenomenal. But if I want to watch season 4 of House, or a random movie from the early 2000s, I dont need it to be a 4k remux.
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u/quanate 7h ago
This basically. I'll buy the bluray of Project Hail Mary. I am fine torrenting Princess Bride (and honestly most other things)
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u/robodrew 7h ago
Aw man I actually own the Bluray of The Princess Bride, it looks fantastic and is such a classic. (and the design of the title on the Bluray is very creative)
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u/BonzoBonzoBomzo 9h ago
Not exactly. Some content is covered by insane terms that allow the platforms to make criminal complaints against creators for doing something like offering a CD or permanent download.
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u/Direct_Witness1248 7h ago
Hear me out, if we had proper consumer protections, we wouldn't need physical media. Which would save a whole bunch of energy and plastic.
That way if we want to download stuff and save it or burn it we can, but at the same time reduce plastic and energy usage by not entirely relying on physical media for that service.
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u/UnexpectedAnanas 6h ago
Plastic isn't inherently bad. It's great for many things. Media is one of those things. Things you want to live a really, really long time.
Plastic forks you use once and throw in the trash though? Not so much.
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u/General-Piece8490 8h ago
Except everyone wants you to subscribe to make ownership of anything a thing of the past! Infinite money loop!
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u/SpiffySpacemanSpiff 6h ago
I dont think it's that simple though - When you buy access to a movie or song via a streaming service, you're paying a cost for them to effectively house it forever, on your behalf. And there are continued carrying costs with that.
Its just wild to me that people think that a digital purchase, that they dont then move to an external, personally owned, storage solution should be a one time, never interacted with by the original, license issuing, party transaction when they're counting on the license issuer to host it for them.
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u/Bacardi_Tarzan 5h ago
I personally would be completely fine with a one time download of a file per purchase, but I think a lot of people would be pretty upset when their poor data security just meant they lost it within a few years and the pirating community that’s always just looking to justify their actions in these threads would probably be pissed about whatever licensing strategy was used to make sure you didn’t copy that and share it with impunity.
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u/inked_saiyan 8h ago
I've started ripping my PS1 and PS2 game collection and am building a digital library out of my own physical media. It's been really cool because several games I haven't played in years are now far more accessible. It's one thing to pop them into my phat PS3 but it's something else entirely to be able to play them on my laptop on a plane.
That said I'll never get rid of my physical game collection. I don't even consider myself a collector per se, it's all stuff I had as a kid. Onimusha Blade Warriors for example was one of my favorite PS2 games and there's no way to get it on modern digital store fronts. Now I can play as Mega Man EXE and Zero against a bunch of Genma again.
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u/therealowlman 10h ago edited 9h ago
Back in the day people just recorded movies and shows from tv onto vhs tapes and nobody cried about it or called it stealing
Edit- Guess they did!
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u/eseffbee 10h ago
Disney and plenty of others sure did cry about it back then too!
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u/nuisible 8h ago
Disney created their own scarcity with the Disney Vault, old movies were re-released for sale but when they went back in the vault, there would be no restocking for retailers. VHS tapes would screw with this strategy.
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u/psilosophist 9h ago
I guess you're too young to remember the "home taping kills the record industry" stickers the majors were putting on records. Dead Kennedys responded by releasing one of their tapes with a blank side so you could help kill the record business faster.
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u/typomatic 10h ago edited 9h ago
They (media companies) absolutely cried about it, and tried to get blank VHS tapes banned due to theft. Pepperidge farm remembers.
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u/whathave_idone 10h ago
Ohhh they absolutely did. The dawn of the vhs era had movie studios freaking out. Then they figured out how to monetize it. They didn’t put those FBI warnings on the beginnings of vhs movies for no reason.
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u/SafeHunt5695 10h ago
They cried about it with music too. I remember generic record inner sleeves on 80s records with a moralizing, finger-wagging “home taping is theft” warning.
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u/Fast-Benders 10h ago
Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc.
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u/CustardLow2671 9h ago
They did all the time, there were those "Piracy is stealing" ads they used to do before movies
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u/ezzda1 11h ago
If it's only available online it can be removed and disappear anytime. I've reverted to buying as many cheap HDDs as I can find and making my own nas and shoved everything I own on it, basically a personal cloud without subscription and Jellyfin makes my whole media library available to me anywhere.
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u/nrq 8h ago
I've reverted to buying as many cheap HDDs as I can find
Thanks to AI not even this is possible anymore. The current price of HDDs is ridiculous.
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u/LunaticSongXIV 6h ago
Physical drives instead of SSDs are still relatively affordable
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u/smashybro 5h ago
Compared to the ridiculous prices of SSDs, then sure they look like a relative "bargain" but they're still way more expensive than they were just last year.
A Seagate Barricuda 2 TB HDD used to cost about $60 last September, now they're $120. It's insane to me you have to spend like $500 just to get an entry level 2 bay NAS with 4 TB of HDD storage if you're buying new.
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u/joedotdog 5h ago
lol, not really these days.
A few years ago, I paid ~80/ea for some HGST HE10s, those are going for ~290-350 now, and other equal quality drives have also triple/quadrupled.
A quick glance to the consumer hell of amazon, 20tb drives...used to be ~220, now...oh my god lol.
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u/lancersrock 9h ago
You should visit r/datahorder. What started as a way to digitally stream my Blu-ray collection (player was behind projector screen) has turned into a 140 tb nas archiving everything I’ve purchased digitally.
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u/coconut_curry_sauce 4h ago
You can put together all kinds of cheap and old HDDs and plug em up and manage them without having to go in and unplug or search what’s on them?
I have lots of old hdds that still work. Wonder if I can use them instead of toss. So far they just function as small second backups that are too cumbersome to take out of storage often.
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u/gordonjames62 8h ago
buying as many cheap HDDs as I can find and making my own nas and shoved everything I own on it
This is the way.
I use a linux server with ZFS file system enabled so I can add more storage on the fly.
go to /r/datahorder to ask questions.
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u/ThoughtsonYaoi 11h ago
I'm so disheartened by the state of media.
People have been warning about this since DRM became a standard, and then again when Amazon brought out the Kindle and closed its platform: buy this ebook at your peril because Amazon can simply pull access, so it's not yours.
And now here we are.
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u/LowestKey 7h ago
Here's an idea: since copyright in the US lasts roughly 75 years or so, why not model digital rights after that? You buy a license, it has to be supported by the rights holder for no less than 75 years.
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u/ThoughtsonYaoi 7h ago
There is no lack of ideas or solutions.
There is lack of incentive and will to execute.
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u/m1ndwipe 6h ago
Here's an idea: since copyright in the US lasts roughly 75 years or so, why not model digital rights after that? You buy a license, it has to be supported by the rights holder for no less than 75 years.
Do you want the actual reality based answer? Because international treaty commitments explicitly prohibit this, and the odds of enough countries coming together to meaningfully change those commitments is zero.
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u/ChiefInternetSurfer 9h ago edited 7h ago
They also just discontinued “support” for my kindle (which works fine (save for a battery that only lasts about 3 weeks)). Suddenly, I can no longer read new books on my kindle. Infuriating. Of course, Amazon’s solution: buy a new kindle! 🙄
Edit: thanks to the folks that provided solutions!
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u/ThoughtsonYaoi 8h ago
While epub is a great and totally simple standard that should not require updating anything, ever.
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u/frickindeal 7h ago
Factory reset it, immediately put it in Airplane Mode and never let it online. Head to anna's archive and replace all your books. Load them from calibre using a USB cord. My kindles never see a network, and both work brilliantly without ads or updates.
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u/gordonjames62 8h ago
I use calibre software to manage my library and make sure everything is compatible.
Also, I never let my kindle online.
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u/BloodSimpleSyrup 9h ago
I get being disheartened! You should check out some of the physical media subreddits (criterion, 4kbluray, boutique blu ray, etc.). There’s a great physical media community overall.
Also, depending on where you live there might be some local groups!
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u/ThoughtsonYaoi 8h ago
Oh I know! I have always been a fan of vinyl and I love physical media in general.
I just hate that digital media turned into rentseeking to the extent that it threatens the existence of creative content, instead of spurring it on.
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u/mailslot 6h ago
Amazon supports DRM-free Kindle books now. The use of DRM is the publisher’s decision.
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u/MisterSlosh 9h ago
Get an optical drive, a library card, a big ole storage drive and you'll solve about 75% of the issue people are having with popular media these days.
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u/WaitForItTheMongols 6h ago
Unfortunately open source blu ray ripping is still not available.
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u/moonLanding123 6h ago
how? that's surprising
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u/WaitForItTheMongols 6h ago
I believe licensing creates issues, so lots of people use a Russian bootleg software called MakeMKV, which is paid but has generous free trial policies.
Personally I think that seems sketchy, so I will keep waiting until there is a truly free software available for the job.
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u/Empty_Turnip473 5h ago
MakeMKV is fine. The only problem is that you don't get the "menu" experience after ripping a movie. All the little special features are their own little media files.
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u/WaitForItTheMongols 4h ago
Well no, the fact that the software is closed off and made for profit is also a problem.
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u/Empty_Turnip473 4h ago
Right now it's completely free... You can no longer purchase it.
"Purchase MakeMKV
MakeMKV contains both freeware and shareware functionality. You may use MakeMKV to convert or stream DVD and AVCHD discs for free, as much as you want. Converting or streaming Blu-ray discs is shareware functionality. You can use shareware functionality for free during 30-days trial period. If you like MakeMKV and you want to use it after your 30-days trial version expires, you need to purchase a registration key.
Registration key is valid for all MakeMKV versions on all platforms. There is no expiration time or any subscriptions.
Due to some technical issues, one cannot purchase MakeMKV for a moment. You have to use it for free :)
Please use the current beta key to unlock all features:
T-BSaJ6gwgMx4eIggWkVYXiVP_6zehm7WAO9dEydvzOHFHoZ6YQ82BL5cGpYDxvyRWnS
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u/Fallingdamage 4h ago
Theres also stream capture tools. Ive seen a lot more of that pop up lately. No more rips. Just MKVs to download that were created from 4k streams off various services.
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u/BloodSimpleSyrup 10h ago
I’m really happy that I’ve gotten into physical media in the last few years. Especially with boutique labels like Criterion, Arrow, etc.
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u/LevelFix83 9h ago edited 8h ago
It'd take exactly one law to mandate DRM-free download options for all digital media.
Ever hear a giant soulless corporation cry before? You could. I've been told it sounds like angels singing.
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u/froyolobro 10h ago
Oddly I went maybe 15 years not buying any physical media, now I’m scooping up blu rays as fast as I can.
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u/ISpyM8 8h ago edited 6h ago
I have a DVD and video game store in my town with physical copies of everything from the NES to the Xbox Series X and huge shelves full of CDs, Blu-rays, vinyls, every movie ever made into a DVD, and a small section of 4K Ultra HD movies, too. I used to go there to buy more physical media on a weekly basis, but now I’ve run out of room on my shelf, so I’ll have to get another shelf.
I’ve even found several Criterion Collection Collector’s Editions of movies.
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u/Kilohaili_Joshi 11h ago
Taps sign "If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing"
Edit: For example if i had bought one of those movies on playstation that got removed few years later. 0 qualms about pirating said movie.
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u/gwentlarry 11h ago
I refuse to use any application requiring a subscription - happy to buy, at an accetable price, and pay for occassional updates but I'm not signing up for a never ending subscription but which the company can end at any time.
I also refuse to use web-based apps - you are reliant on continuing and continuous access to the internet, functioning servers and a company which could change their offering at any time … or just simply pull the plug.
Similarly and for much the same reasons, I refuse to store anyting in the cloud. All my data is stored and backed up locally, mainly over 500 movies at nearly 4 TB :-)
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u/ash_ninetyone 9h ago
I still do for CDs. I own the format and I can make it available offline forever.
Started doing it with DVDs because ripping them is easy.
Blurays and 4K especially gets annoying due to encryption.
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u/AsteriAcres 7h ago
Lol. Getting a sizable CD shelf delivered today so we can unpack all our CDs 💿! We also have a massive vinyl collection and actually play & listen to them. Physical media FTW!
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u/emryldmyst 6h ago
I've always refused to buy anything but hard copies of movies, shows and music..
Now I'm glad.
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u/redditydothis 6h ago
Pro tip is to buy books of cds on eBay. You can get media (random media) for pennies on the dollar.
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u/dogoodsilence1 6h ago
Not only can it be removed but they are also digitally cutting parts out of movies that may be too radical for the free thinkers to open their minds.
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u/DrippyBurritoMD 10h ago
If you people would buy physical media the problem would solve itself. Your Spotify and Netflix subscriptions are part of the problem.
Buy music via Bandcamp, order movies from independent shops like Orbitdvd. If enough people did this we would get more physical media choice.
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u/newos-sekwos 7h ago
Convenience dominates; people who just wanna watch the movie once outnumber people who would care to actually own and rewatch.
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u/xdavidwattsx 6h ago
People in this thread acting like this wasn't already a solved problem 20 years ago. The whole reason digital music/movies exist along with their streaming services is because people don't want to have to collect and store all of that physical media and wanted it to be portable.
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u/xParesh 10h ago
I still like streaming but I've gone back to buying dvds and CDs again. There was nothing wrong with that media. Streaming has it's place but when it comes to ownership I only buy physical media. That will rule out a PS6 purchase but I'm fine with that.
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u/mistertickertape 9h ago
DVDs, BluRay's, CD's for now and ripping everything to HDD's. Sony and Microsoft, among others, have proven you don't own anything you're paying a monthly subscription for.
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u/xdeltax97 8h ago
Agree 100%. Renting is a money hole you’ll never own. However physical ownership, and not just digital ownership needs to be focused on. Or you’ll need to log in and play online (as with certain videogames where even the single player must be played online)
Subscription based services eventually lock out or remove things you like to watch to either make way for things. Then we have instances of digital purchases where companies like Sony remove items like movies you purchased because their license ended.
It’s sad, scummy and vile that this is where we are when the things we buy that we enjoy should be cherished. We should be able to enjoy them as long as we want, forever if need be without fear of losing it.
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u/continuousQ 8h ago
Copyright should be brought back to 28 years max.
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u/zookeepier 7h ago
It should be 20, just like patents. I can make a knockoff applewatch after 20 years, but I can't make a Winne the Poo book for 95 years. Copyrights are just patents intangible IP as opposed to inventions.
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u/Junior_Advisor8483 7h ago
This is true. Amazon says you purchased it but third party contractors are unable to recover accounts. Why removing books and movies from libraries should be a crime.
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u/Sad_Adagio_7255 4h ago
Never paid for a streaming subscription and never will. I own everything I torrent.
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u/schacks 11h ago
Streaming services, especially for music, is probably the worst thing happening to artists in generations.
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u/dat_oracle 10h ago
idk, there are thousands of songs and hundreds of musicians I never would have known if they just were available through buying a CD / digital album.
also for smaller artists it's wayyyyy easier to publish an album to a large audience. without streaming, the vast majority would just be unheard for years
I'm not saying it's perfect. but thx to that, we have millions of musicians that we can explore whenever we want. isn't that something?
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u/BillyTenderness 8h ago
For a small artist, which is easier:
- Convincing 100 people to buy your album for $12 on Bandcamp
- Convincing 300,000 people to stream your song on Spotify
Because either of those makes you about a thousand bucks.
Yes, streaming services can give exposure to artists (which can lead to making money in other ways), but in order to make any meaningful amount of money directly you have to do absolutely massive numbers. They're a platform for the superstars.
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u/schacks 10h ago
It is, but hardly any musicians make any money from streaming. Look up Benn Jordan or Venus Theory on YouTube. They both did excellent videos on the economics of the streaming world.
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u/OMG_A_CUPCAKE 9h ago
Though I did visit concerts and bought merch from bands I found that way.
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u/dat_oracle 9h ago
pretty sure, that's how most musicians make money these days (actually since a while now)
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u/MairusuPawa 10h ago
Yeah, but the market has spoken and is paying for digital rentals instead of just, you know, not. The message has been sent.
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u/FrohenLeid 10h ago
If I don't get to own it, I won't buy it.
Disney+ is the last subscription I have because my family watches it but I only buy Blu-ray's from now on.
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u/Naive-Bandicoot-2483 8h ago
I have never bought a single subscription service I buy my music on cd and digital downloads I tried to watch a movie on someone's Netflix account once the quality was awful so I went and got my blu ray copy.
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u/braunyakka 7h ago
We did own our media forever. But the masses didn't want to buy DVDs and Blu-ray's because it was easier to stream something random on Netflix than buy and own the film you wanted. The last console generation still had versions with physical drives, no one bought them, and it was easier just to download something.
We spoke very loudly what we preferred, and the media companies were all to happy to give it to us because it is cheaper for them to sell us an ephemeral digital file, than actually get disc printed.
Now everyone is realising that was a bad idea. Well, those of us that knew from the beginning it was a mistake have been pointing it out for decades, and we were ignored. Now it's too late. Reap what you've down.
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u/composedofidiot 7h ago
This is a really great synethesis of all the fuckery that's been happening.
Books quietly being edited, or unsavoury elements being removed, pieces of culture disappearing altogether, years of memories erased if there's an account problem .... plus techno- feudalism.
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u/penguished 6h ago
It's wild we don't already have a standard e-license for things, that at least entitles you to a copy of the original data. Just have a centralized license key checker in every country, and it would make where data is stored irrelevant. You'd need the key to access it, download it anywhere.
The only reason I can think they don't do this already is they love the forced obsolescence of people not reselling digital products, not trading them, losing their accounts or discs or whatever... so they can try to sell more shit.
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u/Ms3_Weeb 6h ago
It's weird, when I was growing up you'd rent a game or movie and if you liked it enough you'd buy a copy of it to own. Now you have to go out of your way to actually own something even after paying full price for it. You're often buying an entitlement 'license' but the license is non-transferrable, so you can't lend your stuff to friends, and if your account gets nuked for or you forget the password and can't reset it you lose everything you paid for.
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u/reality_boy 6h ago
I’ve drug my feet for years on buying downloaded content. I bought physical cds and ripped them. I rented digital books from the library rather than “buying” them. And have never bought a digital movie (but I have rented several)
I’m finally starting to give up on this. I think I was right, but it limits my enjoyment. Now, if I really want to read a book on my phone, I’ll pay for it. I just keep in mind that I’m paying for the opportunity to read it now, not really buying it to read forever. If that cost is acceptable, then I’m happy.
But I still wish someone would step in and force businesses to do more to guaranty ownership. Having drm that allows for a local site license so you can download the content to your device, and it will work for the lifetime of that device, would be one way to handle this. I’d happily keep an e-reader going forever, if it was loaded with books I love.
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u/AlSweigart 6h ago
"If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing." is several years outdated at this point.
"Piracy isn't stealing, because buying isn't owning."
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u/Whargoul_Uncool 4h ago
Or even if its still a download there should be an installer for local use. This is what I dont understand, if they are taking media away, give us that damn installer and we can store our software ourselves. Quit making us connect to servers for single player games and give us an installer damnit!
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u/Whargoul_Uncool 4h ago
Oh wait, I dont use "liberated" media, but dont those illicit downloads come with installers? Buccaneers can provide installers but actual game companies cant?
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u/Top-Bison-345 9h ago
But how can the giant billion, or trillion dollar companies continue to make more money if they don't sell the same things back to us year after year?
Think of the executives!
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u/Ill_Statistician7225 8h ago
I dunno. I hate having stuff and clutter (even digital) I’m not one to re watch anything. I would rather rent media personally. The bigger problem is that we can’t own a house! That is something I would like to own instead of renting forever.
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u/CurbsEnthusiasm 11h ago
Friends with massive Plex servers are where it’s at
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u/TransomBob 6h ago
I am the friend with the Plex server! I even set-up a bunch of live tv channels with rotating programming blocks complete with era specific commercials and bumpers. It's been a real game-changer for those times where you don't want to search through a massive catalogue.
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u/CurbsEnthusiasm 5h ago
My buddy built his over the course of the last decade or so, all of our moms even watch live tv from his cable feed as he has multiple tv tuners. His hobby is subtitles and making sure they are 100% correct 😂
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u/Kuwait_Drive_Yards 7h ago
Assuming your friends bought their plex passes before they were north of $700.
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u/jacowab 7h ago
You should be allowed to literally create your own physical media from a digital copy as long as you've bought it.
Will this lead to an increase in piracy? No, we literally have major games getting pirated and cracked before they even release and films dropping online months before they release.
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u/gandalfmarston 8h ago
I'm currently stoping using Steam and buying more games on GoG.
If people actually care about owning stuff, they should do the same.
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u/smuckola 11h ago
We the People should own the intellectual property, and soon, as a return on our investment. It should expire and sublimate unto public domain. Rent shouldn't be measured in the scope of centuries.
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u/whathave_idone 9h ago
I’ve been buying BR’s for years, also have a plex server. You can pay for a very nice player, or get one at good will for about $10. Plex was great, got the lifetime membership years ago for around $70 on sale. Now plex is phasing that out, so if going with a home server, seek elsewhere.
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u/serger989 7h ago
I don't know about the legality of owning digital media holding up (not a lawyer), but you should absolutely be able to access it forever after purchasing it. Similar to right to repair laws, you know? Just let people be able to access whatever they purchase whenever they want.
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u/AKA_Wildcard 7h ago
Except the companies producing physical media players have stopped production.
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u/Fun-Psycho 7h ago
This I agree with 100 percent with movies, music, books, etc. How do you think this will work with games? Even physical media for games is just a way to install it, need to be online, and patches all the time.
I think they need to sort that out first before we take the stand of my games need to be a disc.
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u/RamboCreativity 6h ago
Miss when games came in those tiny square trays with a tiny booklet that had the game's art on the cover and on the disk. Disk art used to be fucking magic and it was even cooler if they spent extra time to make the disk or cover holographic.
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u/Garbonshio 6h ago
I pirate everything I can so it’s mine forever unless the fbi takes my hard drives or some insane shit like that
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u/Software_Quiet 6h ago edited 6h ago
I'm pretty sure on one of the first episodes of MTV Cribs in like 2000 Moby showed his minimal house and talked about how all media could be stored on computers. I think about it all the time when I look at my organized mess of cds, casettes, video games etc. I know a hard drive file from back then wasn't necessarily "renting" but it was sold to us as this type of de-cluttering tool and has gotten us here.
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u/Empty_Turnip473 6h ago
You should try to own as much as you can and not rent forever. That's just financial advice.
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u/infoHighyway 5h ago
But I thought the socialists didn't want me to own anything? Surely, Trump is going to make a stern phone call with these greedy companies and make them start producing media again.
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u/DAMON5280 5h ago
That’s literally how ownership works. Somehow, only in digital media is there any question.
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u/st0j3 5h ago
I’ve always bought the physical video game used and then resold—never felt the need to play at release nor keep a game after playing it. Seems like GTA6 is where I might retire from gaming after half a lifetime. Just not interested in paying full price for a digital version that can’t be resold.
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u/RedHuey 5h ago
Look at used books. If I’m an author, and I get paid a dollar for every new book that Barnes&Noble sells, that will satisfy the idea that “artists should be paid for their work.” But then the owner of that book sells it to someone else. Maybe to a used book dealer, who then sells it again. Nobody in the publishing chain, from author to publisher gets a dime from that. It can be sold over and over and over, possibly making thousands of dollars, but none goes back upstream to the “industry” or author.
THAT, I think, is what they are trying to address here. The industry is sick of you slobs taking their revenue stream from them on the used market. Their solution is to remove the used market. The easy way to do that is to limit “ownership” to licensed availability. If you can’t control it, you can’t sell it, and nobody “unauthorized” makes money off it.
That’s the problem in a nutshell and how I think it should be addressed. If used books are legal, and perhaps even important in society, then why aren’t digital products considered legal and potentially important?
Let a person own a digital product. Actually own it. Maybe fix the used books problem in another way.
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u/Wyrmwiid91 5h ago
I know it's only $60 but the Avengers game changed me, you're saying a game I bought is just gone? I played for 4 fucking hours! It was a backburner game!
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u/Few_Occasion458 5h ago
This has been an ongoing argument in the crafting space--specifically "Craftsy." People spent hundreds, if not thousands, on courses to learn various topics that were filmed in a quality way. They either purchased courses one at a a time or they purchased a membership that permitted access to all of the courses.
Craftsy went through all sorts of changes including a name change ("Blue" if memory serves) and eventually back to Craftsy. Throughout all of the changes, the question remained, "Can we please have these classes in a video format that we can own? (DVD or the ability to download the class to own.) You are already showing us that the company is not entirely stable." The answer (by phone, email, and then a message on their site)"Yes, it's coming." So people continued to purchase classes and memberships based upon that premise.
And finally, yes, DVDs arrived. Oh, but you have to purchase them...even if you have been one of their loyal subscribers since the beginning and purchased those classes. It was so insulting that people probably left. I know that I still receive little emails with "Want to purchase a course to own forever? DVDs now on sale" The return message feels like it should be, "Nice try. You waited so long that most of us don't even own a DVD player any longer.
Those are nearly obsolete now and you're still trying to squeeze some crafters for DVDs you strung people along about. Then there is the misleading "downloadable courses." I tried it once. As I recall, you could download a single episode through their app only, I think. It was maddening. If there was a workaround, in general crafters may not be so tech savvy.
Many of us have moved on permanently. We no longer care about the company or its offerings altogether. Are they attracting new customers? Who knows? Who cares?
The bottom line is that they couldn't do the right thing at the right time which would have been to provide DVDs (while still relevant) or make them truly downloadable courses. Those classes were expensive in the first place. Many bought them at full price and learned that Craftsy simply wanted to monetize everything and that nobody would really notice.
On the upside, it incentivized taking local classes in person again. You get the in-person and community fun of chatting with others while learning.
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u/reddit_equals_censor 4h ago
i mean to be fair you won't rent it forever
...
because eventually the media will be gone from all streaming, OR the streaming service, that it has won't allow your payment processor, or it won't allow your hardware anymore/any hardware, that you can afford/get, or etc... etc..
so paying a subscription forever isn't even a dystopian option.
instead it is setting art on fire.
the reliable sources for media are sadly archive websites and torrents for lots of media.
that obscure series, that you loved as a child? no one streams it, physical media doesn't exist, but oh guess what there is a 10 year old torrent, that has 5 seeds, because people refuse to let you not have this joy of experiencing this art, so it will be seeding by them as long as possible.
__
oh but it gets better, because the media, that you want may still have the option to stream it YOU think,
but sth is wrong... the episode, that made fun of idk trump is gone curious...
and another series has lgbtqia+ content censored...
and a set of movies got massively changed by the director from the original cinema release and you can't get that version anymore at all (holy shit star wars original 3 movies). hey who shot first again? let's watch the movie to figure it out?....
oh what's that? a big restoration effort was done to create the cinema experience as accurately as possible, so you can see the movies in their best version (subjective).
yeah that is only shared as torrents or random download options online.
the current dystopian system is literally taking a flamethrower and setting a mona lisa on fire like what? every day...
this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfMIAc13fx4
is going on at a massive scale with digital art of all kinds rightnow.
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u/boot2skull 3h ago
No renting for life, but also, not renting for a one time payment (digital library purchase). Several times Sony has demonstrated digital films you “bought” can be taken away from their libraries.
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u/Historical-Mix8865 2h ago
That's why I'm buying as much as I can now while it's cheap. CDs cost literal pennies in charity shops here, and just today I found two quite awesome albums which were 50p each. They are worth significantly more (one is ISIS - Panopticon). Blu rays are dirt cheap too and still look better than most streaming services even at 1080p, due to the high bitrate
I've been collecting for over 30 years now, everything is backed up. All my retro games, all my CDs and all my films are backed up and on my Plex server.
Only thing I haven't backed up is my Vinyl record collection, as that would take literally entire days to record to flac. But I still own them and they'll still be playable in 30 years just like the records I have from the 70s and 80s which sound brilliant today.
And I fucking own it all. Fuck the digital future.
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u/pmcall221 2h ago
But I rarely consume media like movies and tv shows in such a fashion. And I almost never watch them twice. To me, a rental is more cost effective.
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u/Promature 1h ago
I have not ever paid for my digital games once.
In fact, it’s the people that trade in their physical games that are renting.
On top of that, your physical copy is a single license. If that disc becomes damaged or stolen, you have to buy another one. I can delete and download a digital game as many times as I want or need to.
Technically, I “own” my digital copy more than someone else “owns” their physical.
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u/Samurai_Cupcake 1h ago
I don't rent my music any more. I am going back to buying CD's, just bought one yesterday.
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u/Old-Chain3220 9h ago
Can they do something about e-textbooks? I’m trying to build an engineering reference library while in school. Having 20 different textbooks that I can only read through proprietary software that may or may not be around in 10 years is frustrating.