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Comment by darkmagnus | Hacker News Reader

As well as Amazon and ITunes, but only for purchase and not for rent...which is kind of annoying.

I've been really frustrated by the "purchase only" digital options for movies lately. I want to watch the US remake of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" but I don't know if I want to watch it more than once.

I'm a little confused. This community (myself included) often complains about how we wish Hollywood would release their movies as DRM-free files. But then some of us say that the "purchase" price is too high and we want a "rental" option.

How exactly would this work? Would the movie studios ask you nicely to remove the file from your computer after three days? I'd love to hear a technical answer that contradicts this, but don't see how a DRM-free rental could ever be possible.

Asking for DRM-free movies only makes sense in the context of purchasing.

Rental is the oldest form of DRM. That's basically how it works.

> How exactly would this work? Would the movie studios ask you nicely to remove the file from your computer after three days?

Isn't that exactly what stores do that rent out movies on physical media?

No. If you don't return the physical media then chances are they'll charge you the full price, not allow you to rent again, and/or track you down because you most likely gave them your contact info.

But they don't have a mechanism in place that makes sure I remove the copy of the movie from my computer after I return the physical medium.

While true, copying a DVD to your computer is not a trivial enough exercise for most people to accomplish, for the U.S. at least.

I don't see in that thread anyone asking for DRM free rental movies. It started out talking about the availability of the movie on Google Play and ended with the frustration of a lack of a rental option. The topic shifted just a bit there.

I don't really see how you could rent streaming movies without some form of DRM in place. I would hope no one expects that.

Where has anyone ever asked for DRM free rentals?

What consumers want is simple.

Ownership: My copy plays from my device (of my choosing) whenever I want.

Rental: Their copy plays from their server when they approve it.

Its the confusing of those two ideas that all these problems stem from.

I'm not part of the "All DRM is always bad. No exceptions" consensus group. I'm in the more pragmatic "I'm OK with DRM, especially for time-limited rentals when it works well and is really cheap" group.

Can't we all just get along?

Yep, i like both the amazon and itunes rental options for movies. Most movies are a one time deal anyway, and they are FAR cheaper than going to a theater for "meh" movies.

For buying I would like the drm to go bye-bye. They can watermark it for all I care, as long as its a plain file with no drm is what I want for the purchase price so I can move it about like the songs I buy from amazon/itunes. That is basically my viewpoint as well.

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