Discussion Looking for thoughts on ownership of digital movies?

[AHA-Lambda]

I know this is something likely been argued on the internet forever but I wanted a feeling here; how do people here feel about the prospects of digital content ownership?

Personally aside from Steam I've always tended physical, as I don't trust that in time I can potentially lose my stuff, as the days of the original Xbox Live shutting down showed me.

Reason I'm asking now is specifically due to digital movies. Renting movies online has been a recent revelation I've found, especially with the current cinema shutdown. But more and more new releases I've seen are foregoing this option, leaving only the option to buy, and I don't want to be ordering discs that some poor chap has to deliver in this situation.
Price points I've seen tend to be mid DVD and Blu-Ray, so was wondering how many folk here buy movies digitally and how they feel about digital ownership in this way? Am I overthinking this and just need to get with the times?
If you do, who's the best provider to buy from, as they all seem the same to me?

 

[FreakOrama]

To me, any digital purchase is the ownership of the file/media/code you download, and you can do whatever you want with it as similar to your freedom of owning a physical item.

If I buy a physical action/anime-figure, and it said that I cannot color over it, I can and will if I desire it.
If I buy a digital game/movie/song, and it said that I cannot tamper with the DRM or alter the code/file, I can and will if I desire it.

 

[Le Pertti]

If there was a service that was like Steam but for movies I would probably use it. Not only for ease of use but the security of being able to access the content and even ease of upgrade, let say a movie later gets 4k version and so on.

But I very much doubt we will ever get a service like that, because there are too many who want to wall of their content and want to be able to sell the same content as many times as possible.

So for me I just pay for a cinema card and watch all movies I want in the cinema. At the moment I don't bother with having any kind of movie collection, since I very rarely rewatch movies.

 

[Stevey]

I always buy Blu rays.
Streaming just isnt the same as the recent drop of quality that major services has been doing has proven.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

The only movies i've bought digitally are ones on Steam. I think i've Rented a digital movie maybe twice? Possibly three times?
Because it can be removed over any petty legal squabble or license expiry I treat digital media as something throwaway and if it's gone it's gone which is mainly why i don't buy digital movies. I'll watch it on a stream and if i like it enough then i'll buy the blu-ray.

 

[Yaska]

Legally speaking, movies are usually licensed, you retain a license to watch them but no ownership on digital. On games? the US and EU regulation is so what the fuck convoluted it makes no sense to a lawyer. I wrote a small paper where i essentially found that the result is that you don't own it based on legislation but courts have ruled that you own your digital games.

 

[Swenhir]

I have the view that information wants to be free and that whatever ends up on your hardware, you should be free to do with as you wish.

Now business model, that's another thing and I tend to prefer buying over anything else.

 

[Deleted member 113]

I love cinema, and I have a collection of about 3000 Blu-Ray releases (and countless DVDs).
So far, I have fully converted to digital for many years for games (since I'm currently a PC gamer only), and in terms of music I went the same way. In fact, I usually went for CD + download options, but since the start of the year I pretty much stopped buying physical copies (for many reasons, including price, the space it takes, the fact that frequently I receive damaged shipments/broken cases, and so on).

But for films, I don't think I'll be changing any time soon.
First of all, for quality reasons (like Stevey already mentioned, streaming is nowhere near the quality of a decent Blu-Ray release).
Second, because streaming platforms, especially those available where I live, pretty much think cinema started in the 2000's, or late 1990's at best, and nothing exists besides American films. A service like Netflix has nothing for me. I'm the kind of guy that loves "genre" films, "b-movies", stuff like 50's/60's sci-fi, Italian cinema (especially gialli, poliziotteschi, peplum, ...), Hammers films, classic Universal Monsters films, Cannon films, and more). And worse, films keep getting removed, which is a big "no-no" for me, who likes to re-watch films, and show them to other people.

I have a big dislike for streaming.
But, I could live with digital downloads. If there was a service that allowed me to download films, as in playable offline, without DRM attached to it, and the quality was comparative to a Blu-Ray, I would certainly consider going for it. I mean, I already purchased a few films that way (where there was no physical release, or the physical release was SD, while the download was HD).

As a fan of genre films, and the history of cinema in general, the preservation of the films is something I worry a lot.
People have less and less options of experiencing older films, especially non-US films, and there are people growing now without knowing a thing about the history of cinema, black and white films, silent films, genres like Noir, and more. It doesn't help that Disney pretty much controls everything, or close to it, and they dictate what people can or can't watch.
It saddens me that, with the internet getting faster and faster, which could in theory be used to make more older films and TV series easily available to everyone, many are unavailable in any shape and form.

I think offering these as downloads could be a way to ensure the preservation and availability of this content.
Companies wouldn't need to worry if the content would sell enough copies to justify the pressing of the Blu-Ray/DVDs, they just had to pay for the bandwidth, and make as much content available as possible.
Sadly, I doubt this is going to happen.

 

[NarohDethan]

I buy on itunes but when they have a deep discount. I used to collect movies but I realized I didnt rewatch them

 

[uraizen]

I have a big dislike for streaming.
But, I could live with digital downloads. If there was a service that allowed me to download films, as in playable offline, without DRM attached to it, and the quality was comparative to a Blu-Ray, I would certainly consider going for it. I mean, I already purchased a few films that way (where there was no physical release, or the physical release was SD, while the download was HD).

This is where I stand on the issue too. There's no way for me to download movies I purchase digitally. Why wouldI opt for that if there's a physical version I can buy? I can download the music I buy from several services.

 

[Trisolarian]

I buy on itunes but when they have a deep discount. I used to collect movies but I realized I didnt rewatch them

I have a handful of films that I rewatch but on the whole, I've gotta lot of discs taking up space in a cd binder. Tossed all of the cases a few years ago and forgot about THAT until just this thread lol.

Owning CDs and games come way before owning books/movies for me.

 

[NarohDethan]

I have a handful of films that I rewatch but on the whole, I've gotta lot of discs taking up space in a cd binder. Tossed all of the cases a few years ago and forgot about THAT until just this thread lol.

Owning CDs and games come way before owning books/movies for me.

I stopped alltogether becase I’ve never been in the need to watch something in particular.