18 users responded in this post

Subscribe to this post comment rss or trackback url
mygif

At the risk of being That Guy:

Richard III on Blu-ray, $32.
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Richard-III-Blu-ray/120310/

That’s expensive for a movie, but not unusually expensive for a Blu-ray re-release, which are almost always overpriced.

ReplyReply
mygif

As this blog post from a year ago notes, the Internet Archive is picking up some of this slack. Although as you’ve said, it doesn’t change the roadblock that copyright issues raise.

ReplyReply
mygif

There’s something additional going on here. All the various players are trying to arrange themselves to actually get money rather than not get money in the new streaming order. Part of this is increased streaming service fragmentation, with content owners launching their own services either directly (HBO GO, the CBS offering that’s going to have the new Start Trek as a marquee item) or as add-ons to Amazon Prime (https://www.amazon.com/videosubscriptions in the US). For example, Richard III is available via the Tribeca Prime add-on subscription (again, in the US).

How this is all going to shake out, I have no idea. Part of it is going to be the morass of interlocking rights deals, especially where streaming/digital rights were never even considered in original rights carve-ups.

ReplyReply
mygif

Happy birthday! Also, yes, a solution would be nice.

ReplyReply
mygif

Totally unrelated to the topic at hand, but are you reading Doctor Strange’s new book? And if so, what are your thoughts on it?

ReplyReply
mygif

Where this leads is ST:TNG, where the human race has given up on anything new in their art forms. I always watch that show imagining the whole RIAA crowd huddling in a shabby bunker with the gold standard people telling each other people will come begging back any day now. Yep, any day…

ReplyReply
mygif

Happy belated birthday!

ReplyReply
mygif

Just another culture clash between the corporations and the masses.

This whole bullshit ‘let’s deliberately choose not to make products available though we very easily could at a profit on the off chance that we can somehow later make a better profit’ is just another wrinkle in this.

Of course, given that the internet is making things so very easy to get illegally if you don’t like the price/format that something is available for legally (if it is where you are), it’s a very short sighted move.

But then, the whole TPP/TPIP/etc attempts to lock down corporate control whilst they still can are also likely to end up being counter-productive, at least in the middle to long term.

In the shorter term, things are only going to get worse before they get better.

But I’m an optimist. Capitalism as it stands and as it is trying to change itself/the world into *will* fall, and something else will take it’s place. Maybe something only a little different, maybe something completely different.

The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.

ReplyReply
mygif

This whole bullshit ‘let’s deliberately choose not to make products available though we very easily could at a profit on the off chance that we can somehow later make a better profit’ is just another wrinkle in this.

Most instances of movies not getting to Blu-ray is because there is insufficient financial incentive to do that, not because of deliberate withholding.

ReplyReply
mygif

The obvious solution is dramatically reduced copyright terms. In the U.S., the original copyright act of 1790 allowed for 14-year copyrights, with an optional 14-year extension that required the original creator to still be alive. That seems reasonable-ish to me, and certainly on a closer order than the current US law on the subject. Similarly, I think greater allowances for “fair use” should be in order.

But then, I am a socialist radical, so take that with appropriate natrium chloride.

ReplyReply
mygif

Last year I wanted to watch A Shot in the Dark, since I hadn’t seen it in several years. The only place with a copy was my local library; not any online service. I was lucky that it wasn’t too badly scratched up.

ReplyReply
mygif
Mary Warner said on February 17th, 2016 at 3:08 am

I’ve wondered if it might be better for copyrights to be use-it-or-lose-it, similar to how trademarks work. In the US (I’m not sure about other countries) if a company doesn’t actually use a trademark after a certain amount of time, then it becomes available for any other company to use. That’s how Marvel was able to get ahold of the name Captain Marvel.

It would have to be a little different for copyrights, but they should have some system whereby a work becomes public domain if it isn’t made available by the owners for too long a time.

ReplyReply
mygif

I just found “WKRP in Cincinnati” on hulu in the USA, if that helps anyone.

Happy birthday!

ReplyReply
mygif
Unsurpassed Travesty said on February 17th, 2016 at 4:11 pm

I used to work at Blockbuster and when people asked why we didn’t have X Disney movie in stock I told them about the Vault system and how it’s a profit enterprise built on making little girls cry.

ReplyReply
mygif

rennejoy–WKRP finally got some partial releasing, but some episodes had to be gutted or omitted, and it took years and years and years because of all the music rights involved. I bought the best DVD set I could find for my dad as a Christmas gift a while back, and had to do a fair bit of research to see what I could get.

The strangling of our culture behind copyright gates is becoming increasingly worrying, especially with the increasing use of trademarks to try and tie up properties who should be entirely public domain (Tarzan, Conan, eventually if not Mickey specifically, the other Disneys.)

ReplyReply
mygif

Prospero’s Books. That is all.

ReplyReply
mygif

I’ve actually been thinking about starting a similar process. I re-came across Plex recently after trying it a few years ago and not being impressed. Now I can stream what movies I do have digitally fairly seamlessly. @MGK – what software are you using to rip your DVDs? I’ve tried a few of the free options out there, but with limited success or poor results. I’d be happy to pay for software, but there is a lot of apparent crap out there as well. Are you storing them on an external drive? Does that seem to work well for streaming, or are you having to keep it on the main drive for better bit rate transfer?

ReplyReply
mygif

I agree, I have also set up Plex to stream all of my purchased media. I still have a couple of items on VHS that were never migrated to DVD, and I have long wondered why. For example, the 1980s movie Scavenger Hunt. It had a huge cast, and no copyright reason I can find for it not being migrated. The studio has just never done it. I can more understand with things like my copies of Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark, or Scream Greats (a great show about Tom Savini and the art of horror makeup).

ReplyReply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Please Note: Comment moderation may be active so there is no need to resubmit your comments