Turns out you don't own the movies you purchased on amazon prime

My understanding is that based on studio requirements all of them function that way.

With Apple there is a exception to this rule. Content you have downloaded stays in your library even if Apple's right to the material is revoked. Unfortunately Apple license to the content apparently doesn't allow users to download 4K version of films. Fandango Now and the others may also work this way.

I still buy Blu-Rays for quality reasons and because I want to actually own my copy.
 
I've had this happen just by traveling to different countries and being unable to access content I'd "purchased." DRM is infuriating. At this point you have to accept that purchasing a digital copy of anything (book, movie, music, etc.) from big companies generally means purchasing limited rights to use/view the material for a period of time and under certain conditions.
 
I'm not sure if you can still do this or not, but I used to extract the PDF from Amazon ebooks, mainly because I wanted to read the book in a better program than Amazon's abysmally crappy Kindle app, and as a side benefit I have a PDF copy that will never go away.
 
Imamacuser said:
I'm not sure if you can still do this or not, but I used to extract the PDF from Amazon ebooks, mainly because I wanted to read the book in a better program than Amazon's abysmally crappy Kindle app, and as a side benefit I have a PDF copy that will never go away.
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Unless things have changed recently I'm pretty sure you can still do this with programs like Calibre.
 
Just do what I do, set up my vhs camera and shoot the screen. I own it forever or 7 years till the tape starts to gum up.
 
drboffa said:
I've had this happen just by traveling to different countries and being unable to access content I'd "purchased." DRM is infuriating. At this point you have to accept that purchasing a digital copy of anything (book, movie, music, etc.) from big companies generally means purchasing limited rights to use/view the material for a period of time and under certain conditions.
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1000%.

It’s no wonder piracy exists. You’re actively punished for doing the right thing.

As someone who travels a great deal for work I have three iTunes accounts.

You can not play content you’ve paid for if you’re not in the country / territory you bought it in.

They great lie about trading in physical media for the so called convenience of the cloud is that the freaking cloud only can stay above the country you buy it in.

Google play seems to be the exception to this.

JB
 
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This also applies to books. Totalitarians of the near (and current) future don't have to burn books that disagree with their despotism... they'll just delete them with the stroke of a key.
 
It’s why all the media companies are going towards and so heavily pushing “digital downloads”. Everything is now essentially a rental. If it stays in the cloud, they control that. And even if you download it, it’s still possibly only a firmware update away from being “taken away”, as well.
 
Yes, yes, the chickens have come home to roost. There was a loud case a few years ago, where Amazon actually went in and removed an e-book people already bought. Ironically, it was Orwell's "1984", very "Orwellian", LOL. The reason is that there was some kind of rights dispute and Amazon decided to solve it by robbing their customers. But that was the occasion when it was LOUD - because of "Orwell" - whereas they've always been doing it. Here's the story:

Amazon Secretly Removes "1984" From the Kindle

They really showed their true colors - you never own any digital purchase, because even if you bought it believing that you own it forever, it can secretly be removed or locked and you're out of luck. By the way, if you read that article, you'll see just how regularly they do it - they did it with many books over time, it's a regular occurance. Even though in their disclosure when they sell you e-books they don't have the right to do this. They don't care. They can and will rob you at their discretion. And the courts will back them up, no matter that it flies in the face of not just the spirit but the actual letter of the law. The consumer will always lose out to corporations in this scenario, because of the economic power that translates into political power and how laws are enforced - or not enforced.

I never forget that. I never trusted ANY digital purchases, no matter what they say. My attitude is to - within the confines of the law - do all I can to *own* my stuff. You do have the right to make backups (make sure you understand this right as well as the limitations of that right).

My friends accuse me of being a dinosaur, because I insist on owning physical copies. I make backups. I have massive archives of music, film and books on hard drives and I have RAID backups many TB's worth of material.

My friends say: get with the times, everything is available on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, Youtube Music whatnot, so much more convenient. I laugh. And laugh. Because no, it's not available. There is a lot of music, books, films that never made it from one format to another (remember back in the day how many films never made it from VHS to DVD due to some rights dispute?). I laugh - I don't care - I have it on my hard drives. Also, my friends are constantly worried about which movie or show is disappearing from Netflix or HBO or whatnot - here today, gone tomorrow. I laugh - I don't care - I have it on my hard drives.

I also remember how services - even from major companies like Microsoft - are abandoned, and then all the stuff they sold you with DRM is suddenly locked. Sure, there's supposed to be a transition period, but who keeps track? You miss the window, and you're left with a lot of dead files. I laugh - I don't care - I have it on my hard drives without DRM.

I don't buy kindle books from Amazon - they can go pound sand with their proprietary this that and the third. I don't own a kindle. F them forever. I believe in open formats (epub for books), and since kindle doesn't do epub they can go f themselves, I'm not buying a kindle - ever.

I pay for Netflix. I have HBO Max. I have Amazon Prime. I'm willing to pay. But I use them at arms length and have zero trust. I like to own my stuff. And I take measures to make sure that my stuff can't be arbitrarily taken or rights revoked.

So when my friends laugh at the 30+TB of drives I own, I just smile. Because the time to laugh for ME is when the Spotify user complains about not having coverage at the moment, because their internet is down. Or when they suddenly can't find a book/song/film that was there just the other day. And so on.

I am certainly NOT advocating or encouraging anyone to break the law, engage in piracy or make illegal copies. I am advocating that you not count on the benevolence and good will of faceless corporations who are in business (properly!) to make money. The only person who can protect your rights and your property is YOU. Take that as you will.
 
The older I get, the less inclined I am to watch almost any movie more than once. I'd say probably 98 percent of what I watch is going to end up in that never going to see again category. I only purchase stuff I love and know I'll enjoy many times in the future and it's always a hard copy -- blu-ray, 4k blu-ray and for music, vinyl. The rest I just rely on streaming services but I never purchase digitally, just watch whatever is included in the subscription.
 
I’ve been having many sleepless nights since I learned that my beloved digital download of “Wang Chung presents a family Christmas in Liverpool on ice with musical guests Charo and Mr.T “ might disappear forever.
 
Not just movies but music too. However, we've missed the fact that over the years the producers have gradually made sure the conditions of 'sale' have become quite good on non-ownership. The labelling on CD's followed on from records, and strictly speaking all you really purchase is the right to use it a home for domestic purposes. I think you own the plastic, but you never own the contents. The idea we buy the movie or the music is what we think we do, but we don't. DVDs for ever have had those warnings at the beginning telling you what you can't do with them, so we've never owned the movie, just the right to use it. It follows that they can switch this right off, as its under their control.
 
lambert said:
Just do what I do, set up my vhs camera and shoot the screen. I own it forever or 7 years till the tape starts to gum up.
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We were allowed to record and time shift to VHS. What's different now that the signal is HD or 4K? Decrypting an HDCP encoded signal is considered to be "illegal." Re-encoding an HDCP encoded signal is not illegal. To do this just use an HDCP compliant HDMI to analogue HD component video / audio converter to create a recordable analogue HD signal. There are many recorders out there that can take an analogue HD component / audio signal and record a very decent looking copy to MP4 or MPEG2. Totally suitable quality if you just want to record an HD FTA or Cable signal. Boxes like below, which even have timer record capability. I do it all the time here in Aussie to record European sports, soccer and F1 motor racing events when they occur at crazy times overnight.

Chris Young

https://ebay.to/2TLw90y

HD video cap.jpg
 
I'm having similar grief with VSTi instruments that I bought and paid for but due to windows housekeeping, the licence is now invalid and worse, I n' remember who I bought it from or when or how much. It's infuriating!
 
OldCorpse said:
Yes, yes, the chickens have come home to roost. There was a loud case a few years ago, where Amazon actually went in and removed an e-book people already bought. Ironically, it was Orwell's "1984", very "Orwellian", LOL. The reason is that there was some kind of rights dispute and Amazon decided to solve it by robbing their customers. But that was the occasion when it was LOUD - because of "Orwell" - whereas they've always been doing it. Here's the story:.......
[le snip]

So when my friends laugh at the 30+TB of drives I own, I just smile. Because the time to laugh for ME is when the Spotify user complains about not having coverage at the moment, because their internet is down. Or when they suddenly can't find a book/song/film that was there just the other day. And so on.

I am certainly NOT advocating or encouraging anyone to break the law, engage in piracy or make illegal copies. I am advocating that you not count on the benevolence and good will of faceless corporations who are in business (properly!) to make money. The only person who can protect your rights and your property is YOU. Take that as you will.
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This, truly and completely this. I don't care what the information is... information is knowledge, knowledge is power. Trust neither corporations nor governments to surrender power once you've ceded it to them, and give them as little power as possible.
 
I made a good number of vhs to vhs foreign, art film copies in the 90s. I think I rewatched very few if any. I was luckier than many because I had access to really good rental shops and a diverse, plentiful and inexpensive cinema scene that usually gave one more many fantastic films throughout the week. It was very exciting to discuss films afterwards with friends and strangers. Unfortunately that experience has probably gone the way of the dodo bird. Now the choices are limitless but feel empty and soulless without human interaction.
 
FWIW, I personally do re-watch movies. There have been threads here about re-watching movies and if they hold up or not etc., so that's nothing new. I re-watch them and I'd say about 99% of the time the hold up - for me - i.e. I don't change my opinion upon seeing them again x number of years. Some I rewatch over and over again, and then suddenly find them even better than I thought, mostly in comparison with what's getting made these days. They don't even have to be particularly old or obscure movies. In fact just last week I re-watched a couple of David Lynch movies which are quite famous and I was shocked by how good they were, even though I already thought they were great - Blue Velvet and Eraserhead. The psychology of those two movies, of course, but also sheer craftsmanship.

I miss well-made movies. I miss the craft that seems absent so frequently, just basic nuts and bolts. DPs and sound people are pretty good these days, but I just don't understand what happened to camera placement, framing, movement and so on, it's on such a low level compared to the past.

Anyhow, I have a ton of foreign and "art" films in my collection and I'm very happy that I secured them years and years ago. And unlike some who report here, I do re-watch them regularly - most often when I've watched a bunch of recent movies and feel frustrated and need a palate cleanser, so I go re-watch some old "surefire" good film just so that I can regain my sanity and not fall into despair over the state of contemporary film craft and story craft. YMMV.
 
OldCorpse said:
FWIW, I personally do re-watch movies. There have been threads here about re-watching movies and if they hold up or not etc., so that's nothing new. I re-watch them and I'd say about 99% of the time the hold up - for me - i.e. I don't change my opinion upon seeing them again x number of years. Some I rewatch over and over again, and then suddenly find them even better than I thought, mostly in comparison with what's getting made these days. They don't even have to be particularly old or obscure movies. In fact just last week I re-watched a couple of David Lynch movies which are quite famous and I was shocked by how good they were, even though I already thought they were great - Blue Velvet and Eraserhead. The psychology of those two movies, of course, but also sheer craftsmanship.

I miss well-made movies. I miss the craft that seems absent so frequently, just basic nuts and bolts. DPs and sound people are pretty good these days, but I just don't understand what happened to camera placement, framing, movement and so on, it's on such a low level compared to the past.

Anyhow, I have a ton of foreign and "art" films in my collection and I'm very happy that I secured them years and years ago. And unlike some who report here, I do re-watch them regularly - most often when I've watched a bunch of recent movies and feel frustrated and need a palate cleanser, so I go re-watch some old "surefire" good film just so that I can regain my sanity and not fall into despair over the state of contemporary film craft and story craft. YMMV.
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I've often wondered if it was because of shooting on film and everything seemed to carry a lot more importance and weight, as opposed to today where you are, at the base, just "shooting video onto memory cards" and the pedestrian laxness that comes with it(even if on a sub-conscious level).
 
Just to offer a counterpoint, if you're willing to dig past most studio releases—and even many so-called "indies" today, which are often just studio releases dressed up as indies—you can find that there are some offerings that rival anything from the supposed glory days of film/cinema. This is especially true outside the US. Someone was recently asking about the most impressive directorial debuts (for features) in the past decade or so that we'd seen and this was what I could think of just off the top of my head:

Cameraperson (Johnson)
Ex Machina (Garland)
Bellflower (Glodell)
Slow West (Maclean)
Lady Bird (Gerwig)
Mid90s (Hill)
Sorry to Bother You (Riley)
An Elephant Sitting Still (Hu)
Atlantics (Diop)

Finally, it's not a debut but Bi Gan's "Long Day's Journey Into Night" is about as brilliant a film I've ever seen, and rivals Lynch in terms of creating a dreamlike state (I'd even say he does dreamlike better than Lynch).
 
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