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Digital Ownership

 What Is?

With the digital revolution, digital media has been sweeping the world. My memory of digital media was back with iTunes in 2001. There you could download music with a touch of a button from an actual retailer vs illegally with the bonus of malware to your computer. I actually had digital music from iTunes before I had a iPod or iPhone to play it on. In 2005, Apple released their video iPod and started to "sell" digital TV and movies. I am not saying Apple was the foundation for the digital revolution but it was my first positive experience with digital media. My first digital video purchase was the unaired Aquaman TV pilot as it was the only place to get it.

What does purchasing something digitally really mean though? Apple and Amazon are coming under class-action lawsuits for their digital ownership definition of "buy" an item. The lawsuit stems from the fine print where retailers cannot guarantee you own the product but merely have unlimited streaming. There is a potential that a retailer could cancel a users account or that the retailer no longer has the license to the product which could be removed from your library. This is an extreme situation but one I have come across.

I did have a situation with a retailer where three movies I purchased were removed from my library without my knowledge. I worked with the vendor I purchased the movies from and was able to resolve the issue. The only reason I even noticed it at the time was because I had them in a wish list and they appeared back in my wish list after I had already purchased them. A good reason to keep a wish list so in the future.

Movies vs Music

Since digital music has been around longer than digital movies, why have we not hear a mass outcry with music. I can thing of a few. First, digital music can be burned to disc for listening in CD players or as a backup to your digital music purchases. Second, digital music can be made from your existing physical library legally for free by using Windows Media Player, iTunes, or other media playing software. The possibility of loosing your digital music collection is an extremely rare situation.

In contrast, you cannot easily and in most cases, legally convert your physical TV or movie collection using a simple player. The best legal way to convert your collection is through Vudu's disc to digital solution. This does have the limitation that the not all movies from all studios are available for this option of digital conversion and no TV series is eligible for disc to digital. Likewise, digital TV and movies cannot be burned to a DVD or Blue-ray for backup purposes.

What Now?

I don't mean to scare those you are interested in building a digital movie collection with this doom and gloom post. I merely wanted to bring some things to your attention due to current news. The reason for moving to a digital collection are still a valid reasons. I have a few movies in my Vudu collection right now that I am still able to watch but I know that they are no longer available for purchase. So I have a little confidence that some retailers see "buy" as stream for life or at least the life of the company.

I add this clause as I have seen the likes of Flixster, CinemaNow, UltraViolet, and a few other go out of business. Do I see Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Vudu, or Movies Anywhere going out of business anytime soon? No. We have seen Vudu purchased by Fandango but there has not been any negative impact on my digital collection.

Recommendations

As a digital movie collector, I have started to do things that ensure I will get to enjoy my collection for years to come. First, I highly recommend having a Movies Anywhere account and redeeming a majority of codes through the site since the digital locker will help ensure my titles are saved at multiple retailers. Second, I recommend purchasing physical disc with digital copies of movies that are not Movies Anywhere compatible. These include movies from studios like Paramount, Lionsgate, and MGM.

TV series are a hit or miss with digital or physical copies. The TV series Forever with Ioan Gruffudd and Judd Hirsch never made it to physical media but did come to digital. For those interested in this series which I highly recommend, you can watch it for free with commercials on the CW Seed app. In contrast, Northern Exposure with Rob Morrow and Janine Turner can only be found on DVD. I purchased the complete series off Amazon.

There are some series I purchase both physical and digital version separately. Most times, I had the physical media before the digital. This was due to the fact the physical version did not come with digital copy. I did wait until the digital versions were on sale. I look at season for less than $10 and have gotten a few for as low as $5 a season. It is up to you to determine if you want the convenience of digital streaming and/or if you want a more permanent solution with physical media (until they quit making players for the media see VHS tapes).

One last thing about physical media, you do own the item and can watch it anytime you want. You could also have a fire at your house and loose all that media. Let's face it, some collections have TV and movies that are no longer made. Because of the size of my collection and the ability to watch anywhere and anytime is the reason for me building my digital collection. I highly recommend that when building your collections (digital or physical) that you only get the items you truly like. I have more than a few bad digital items in my collection simply because they were great deals. Cheap garbage is garbage you paid for. 

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