Not only is piracy affecting businesses but it is also hurting consumers. And when I say consumer I am referring to those who legally obtained the product. Recently, my girlfriend wanted to download a season of
True Blood from our DVD set to our iTunes account. This way she could watch it on the iPad at the gym. This seems perfectly logical to me. I mean we do own a legal physical copy of the season. I should be allowed to upload it to our iTunes account, right? The answer is NO. The disks are copy protected and therefore we can not upload them. I understand why anti-piracy devices like this are being used. Piracy is steadily growing and therefore the amount of lost revenue is constantly increasing. Content owners are just trying to prevent their material from being pirated. However, to some extent these anti-piracy devices are hurting the actual customers. If my girlfriend wants to watch this particular season of True Blood at the gym we have to buy it again, this time from the iTunes store (and while buying the season on iTunes is of comparable cost to the physical DVDs, it does not include the special features that come with the DVDS such as director commentaries and behind-the-scenes footage). This is not fair. We already own the season. Why should we have to buy it again? It's not like I want the capability of sharing the download with anyone. I just want to be able to use a product I bought on multiple devices I own.
I believe there are some free programs out that you can use to rip the DVD on your computer into an mp4 format. By believe I mean I have it on my computer and it bypasses all the piracy protection on the DVD. Do you feel that all this "Piracy" protection has more to do with Apple and other companies just trying to make money? I get just as mad as well because I am a big collector of DVD seasons and was pretty mad when I found out I could not upload them without the hassle of finding some possibly virus infested program.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with the belief that if you buy something once it should then be available in all forms not just hard copy. I also see the possibility of one purchase either hard or digital being available for any use in the future. If too many companies are losing money through piracy then it is only a matter of time before this type of market becomes available.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree! I have so many DVDs that I wish I could just download to iTunes but unfortunately it doesn't work the same as CDs. It's very unfair that even after purchasing a real copy, you have to re-download it if you want a digital. If you buy recent DVDs/BluRays a lot of them come with an UltraViolet feature which allows you to get a digital copy of the movie free of charge. This is good but I feel that the movie industry should allow for digital copies of older DVDs. Why punish everyone for "pirates'" mistakes?
ReplyDeleteI believe that there are services offered at stores like Wal-Mart where you can pay a few bucks and they can transfer any DVD to a digital format to allow consumers to put them on other devices. It seems ridiculous to have to pay an additional fee in order to watch something you already own but that’s the world we live in. Companies are there to make a profit and not hand out free copies. As someone already stated new DVD's are coming with Ultraviolet copies, I guess the movie industries somewhat understand the demands of their consumers.
ReplyDeleteKyle White
This is an interesting story. It makes sense that a person would want to watch the episode on all their devices and buying the season again is absurd, but I also understand that the business side of it. Although he is wanting to watch it on another device and he has already bought it, there are more times than not that people download for less honest reasons. Most of the time people are stealing and because of this I understand why businesses make it impossible to transfer.
ReplyDeleteKrzysztof Kwasniewicz
It would be a good idea for the companies who produce the DVDs and I-Tunes to work together. For instance, if you purchase a DVD from the store, then it would be beneficial to be able to play the DVD on different electronics. I wish there was some code, kind of like a product code, where if you purchase the material, then you could download it onto one, maybe two other devices. For instance, if your girlfriend bought the DVD, then if she went to her i-tunes she could enter a product code or key code to say she bought that DVD and then be able to download it onto her i-pad. That way it shows she bought the material and is using it for her own personal use.
ReplyDelete-Lauren Gorowski
I am frustrated with this design as well. Some DVDs are now being sold with an additional copy that is an electronic copy. I would like to be able to have all my legally purchased media with me in the format that I want.
ReplyDeleteMy life is ruined still. CS
ReplyDelete