Posted on 12/21/2013 12:40:45 PM PST by grundle
Disney has decided to pull access to several purchased Christmas videos from Amazon during the holiday season, as the movie studio wants its TV-channel to have the content exclusively. Affected customers have seen their videos disappear from their online libraries, showing once again that not everything you buy is actually yours to keep.
One of the best ways to deal with online piracy is to make content available legally.
This is common knowledge by now, but copyright holders still believe that exclusivity can earn them more in the long run, even when it hurts legitimate customers.
A good example of this twisted reasoning is Disney’s decision to make certain Christmas videos unavailable on Amazon because they want people to tune in to their TV channel instead. This ban is not limited to new customers and includes those who already purchased the videos.
One of the affected customers of Disney’s restrictive policy is Bill, who informed BoingBoing that the Christmas themed ‘Disney Prep & Landing’ he bought for his kids last year had been pulled from his library.
“Amazon has explained to me that Disney can pull their content at any time and ‘at this time they’ve pulled that show for exclusivity on their own channel.’ In other words, Amazon sold me a Christmas special my kids can’t watch during the run up to Christmas,” Bill notes.
“It’ll be available in July though!” he adds.
Those who go to Disney Prep & Landing’s Amazon listing now get the following notice: “Due to our licensing agreements this video is currently not available for purchase or rental.” And that’s not the only title that has been pulled, the same notice also appears for other Disney Christmas videos such as ‘The Muppet Christmas Carol‘ and ‘Beauty And The Beast: The Enchanted Christmas.’
(Excerpt) Read more at torrentfreak.com ...
I buy physical product. I don’t want corporations tracking my reading/viewing habits and subsequently censoring the editions I am offered of previously purchased titles.
My guess is if you’re on FR, there’s nothing the regime don’t know about you....
It isn’t about the government regime.
It is about Big Media that decides this week to digitally airbrush out cigarettes from old Disney cartoons and next week to omit any details of Democrat opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Bill or involvement in the KKK.
They aren’t PAYING me to track me. I’ll buy used product, they won’t see a dime of my money, and I’m “off the grid”.
So much for people who think they “own” what they paid for.
And this is exactly why anything I really like I make sure I own it physically. The stream is nice for one shot stuff, but your access to it is at the whim of 2 companies, either of which can be capricious or spiteful at any time. And note this is NOT Amazon pulling content, this is Disney pulling content.
Sounds like this is simply an attempt to justify/rationalize illegal activity.
One pays for leases and rent.
That’s what this is.
And this is why despite the fact I would like to have an e-reader it will never be a Kindle.
Looking at the comment string from reviewers, it appears that this show was unavailable for one day, December 16th, when it aired on ABC.
Now reading the original article, I was ready to fire off a blistering viewpoint on it. But is it a deep impact to block the show on the day that it is broadcasting on television? I personally think that is something I wouldn't support, and am critical of Amazon to sell a product, then block use of the product on the day it is broadcast on network TV.
But the other half of me figures, gosh, a one day blackout JUST on the day that it is broadcast on TV? Maybe not something to throw a massive fit over.
The movies I purchased from Amazon Instant Video say, "You own this movie".
They lie. Since they only lease the movie from the distributor they can’t sell it to you, you only “own” it in so far as for as long as they’re allowed to store it on their servers they can show it to you. But the minute they aren’t allowed to have it on their servers you get nothing.
I bought five dart guns from Amazon. I wanted four more. I was told that I had met my maximum. So I went to the locally owned (not Toys R Us) toy store and bought them.
I bought Heavy Metal (1981) a couple of months ago. Amazon has since removed it for rent or purchase due to contract issues. I still own and can play the movie.
What does the fine print say?
In reality, consumers never own a movie they buy. It makes no sense for Amazon to say that.
If we buy a DVD of a movie, we own the physical disc. And we own rights to watch the movie as often as we want using the physical media we purchased.
But we sure don’t own the movie.
I read books from my Kindle iPad app and stream Amazom Prime movies on it as well as my tv. The Disney issue is not a Kindle issue.
It’ll depend on the contracts and what their current dispute is, but eventually you won’t be able to watch it if they don’t get settled. Guarantee it, video rental companies lost this argument in the 80s, Amazon lost this argument with the Kindle a few years ago, this article is about them losing it again earlier this week. In the end they don’t own the content, they only lease the right to distribute, and that can be lost.
So do I. I like having real books, CDs, vinyl records, DVDs. For me, there's something more satisfying about that.
It's amazing that a large percentage of people's budgets is spent on nothing that's real. JMHO
I buy physical product. I don’t want corporations tracking my reading/viewing habits and subsequently censoring the editions I am offered of previously purchased titles.
That won’t last forever. You will have to buy electronic books and movies eventually. Probably sooner then later.
Bootlegging CDs and DVDs is a completely justified act of civil disobedience.
If a musician wants me to pay him a reasonable sum for his CD, okay. If a record company wants me to pay an exorbitant sum to buy cocaine and whores for record-company executives, they can bite my man-sized ass.
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