watercooler

Since I have a daughter, I have to get some things I’d NEVER get otherwise. For example, she just got the new Cinderella DVD that Disney released. OK, it’s a cute movie – kind of, but only the first 285 times it’s been on. After that, the enjoyment factor kinda went downhill. For those of you who have or spend any amount of time with small kids, it’s no surprise that they aren’t as careful with those discs. Whether a CD or a DVD, it’s got the nice pictures on one side, and the cool shiny stuff on the other, it’s almost like it’s calling to be played with. I’ve had some discs that only lasted about 2 hours! Considering the price of a new disc, that’s horrible, but inevitable. How can you get a disc and expect no one to touch it, especially when it’s the kid’s favorite show? Young kids don’t know why they have to follow the “46 rules of optical media handling” when all they want is to watch the show.

The bad part is that I found out I’m legally only allowed to play this disc in my DVD player. Before you start telling me that computers play movies too, I’m telling you that Disney doesn’t want me to. I used to run Windows, but I now run Linux, and Suse is a wonderful thing. All my hardware just works, I no longer need to reboot hourly. (Yes, I’m a geek, and I can tweak any MS OS to (mostly) run the way I want, but this isn’t about that, it’s the OS itself.) Since I dare to run a non-microsoft computer, the movie companies don’t think I should be allowed to watch their movies away from the TV. Where is this going, you ask? Well sometimes I really do want to watch TV, or maybe a different DVD, maybe play a video game, or I just don’t wanna see that stupid movie for the 24th time today. In that case, my dear little girl wouldn’t be able to watch her movie. Her computer, which has been ‘modified’ to allow it to watch DVD movies, can now babysit her for about an hour.  (Please leave child care, disclipline, and supervision out of this for now – that’s a different topic.)  Whoops, I guess I’m evil incarnate to the big media companies.     (Side note:  Thank you DVD John – You are a Freakin Genius)

Why is it that this happens? According to the Hollywood, the MPAA, etc, this is because I don’t own the movie, I only own a few pieces of plastic – and I have purchased a license to view it’s content, but only according to their rules. Which means, they dictate that I must watch their commercials and previews, and the disc can only be played on “approved hardware” by which they mean a DVD set-top box, or a microsoft computer. The content on the disc is encrypted, which means non-approved devices can’t read/play it. Why? The party line says this is to “prevent piracy”. HUH? I don’t get it. I’m not pirating the movie, I’m watching it in my own house! I’m not putting it online for P2P downloads, I’m not copying it and selling copies on the street (or ebay) for $2 each. I’m just watching the damn thing. As I stated above, kids are rough on the discs (I think they make it so the discs scratch easy), and I’m really not happy about spending another $30 on a new movie.  I can’t make a copy for the kids to handle, and put ONLY the movie on it. Just the movie, with an auto-start and auto-repeat. The original stays clean! Who cares if the copy is dorked up? I can’t hook up my VCR between the DVD player and TV and make a copy for the same reason. Trying to do this makes me the pirate?

I’ve already purchased eleventeen hundred movies. Many of them multiple times (gifts, loss, theft, wear&tear, new format, etc). Heck, I’m even on my 6th-ish copy of Tommy Boy! I go to see movies at the theater, I rent them from Blockbuster, and I rent them on PPV. And yes, I buy them on disc when they come out for general consumption. So for a good movie, by the time I have my copy in my shelf, I’ve already paid to see it like 3 or 4 times – or up to 8-10 times if you count per-person entry fees.  For a recent big hit, I think my family spent about $60 to see one movie (theater, rental, then purchase).  Yeah, I could “make a copy” from the blockbuster disc, I could record it off of TV from PPV – but having the full DVD with the bonus stuff, the professional case labeling, all the other “goodies” that come along with the movie make it worthwhile to purchase (ex: the 10-disc box set of HugeMegaHit is cooler than a CD wallet of Memorex discs that took 9 months to download).  I’m still buying the occasional video.  FOR NOW. I’m less and less interested in buying movies when I’m made out to be the bad guy for just trying to watch a movie in my own house. I really don’t want to have to pay them to aggravate me.

You treat me, your customer, like a thief long enough, and maybe I’ll become one.  Quit screwing around with your customers – you will only drive them away.