HarryLong wrote:How many of the digital downloads of various things I've bought I actually technically own is another matter. Usually I'm just renting a licence that they can take away from me at any time and when they do I'm fucked.
I've not explored downloading - legeal or otherwise - for a number of the reasons listed here (poorer qaulity, the fondness for having a physical object, etc.) plus being on dial-up and having had three computers crash (one twice) in the past year and a half.
But this is an imprtant downside to downloading ... much like the situation last year of Kindle owners who suddenly found their copies of
1984 repossessed...
Slightly off topic but I think the following may be relevant. This is actually affecting video games as well, and it might be interesting to look at the example of
Steam on the PC. In my case with the Left 4 Dead games, which introduced me to Steam, you can purchase a physical copy of the game as per usual but mostly you purchase the right to 'activate' the game on your online account. This account is transferrable between computers simply by logging into the Steam utility from any terminal, so theoretically you should be able to play a game you own anywhere and on any computer, which gets around the previous problem in the computer game world of limited numbers of allowed activations of a game to prevent unauthorised re-selling or people passing games on to others without authorisation (a system that placed far more restrictions on the end user than DVD has ever done - though
Divx was a failed attempt early in the life of DVD to produce a similar kind of 'limited number of plays' disc) , which was something which upset a lot of people as it was seen as restricting content that they had legitimately purchased.
Steam also provides the ability for online gaming, as multiple Steam users can link together in the same game, (likely similar to the way you can on the XBox, though I've never used that console). Along with that it also allows the member to purchase games online and most importantly automatically updates games with new content and patches (it may be wishful thinking to hope for a film site set up in the same manner that lets users upgrade from standard to high definition formats of the same film?) This automatic updating of a game is a really neat feature and helps to overcome the immediate outdateness of a purchased product, which is just more emphasised in the video game world, but can be applicable to films too.
However despite all the above praises for Steam I still do have reservations about what happens to the latest and greatest games after a few years have passed. Will they be supported indefinitely, and do places like Steam (or The Auteurs, or any other subscription service for films that may be set up) really have an indefinite obligation to maintain support following a customer's purchase of the right to see a film or play a game whenever they want, rather than just to rent access to it during the time that such access remains economically viable for the organisations involved to provide?
Of course all these issues are going to expand even more when Microsoft and other big companies start moving into
cloud computing (and the suggestion that Windows 7 will be their last physical OS, amid talk of the Windows Azure operating system) and encouraging users to overcome their doubts about storing all their data and programmes online rather than on a physical hard drive because they know that is where the money is to be made, in the intangible, rather than a physical, fixed product.
I have my doubts, as with anything there are great advantages to be had from a totally online media environment (especially for the distributors), yet there are also some difficult issues of 'ownership' of a purchase amongst many other problems to be overcome. For example at the moment, especially out here in the sticks of rural Britain where the only reason that I have access to a broadband connection is because of being lucky enough to live in an area where there was a local community project to create one for the area, I'm not sure if I really want to make the ability to access the basic functions of my computer dependent on my internet access, let alone on the constant speed of such a connection.