…ooookay. So let's say I buy a DVD and want to watch it on my iPod. How exactly is it going to get there without ripping it? Elves?

I can't read the whole article, but it seems to me that Apple and Disney are banking on a couple of shady assumptions: that I choose to use their software (which I do for a lot of things, but not for watching movies) and that I have a ridiculously dependable hi-speed internet connection (it's fast, but about as dependable as an alcoholic step-father.)

Want to know what would make me start seriously spending my expendable income on DVD's again? If the DVD's you get from the store include an unencumbered .avi I could throw into a folder on my media computer to watch whenever I want without having to go through the hassle of ripping it myself. Use the iTunes method of embedding your user account in the file so that if it ended up on the file sharing networks, they'd know whose door to knock on.

We don't need new systems of DRM. We need Hollywood to get its head out of its ass and start trusting the majority of their customers who don't want to grab their movies off of the internet but don't want to be bent over their barrel either, and if backed into a corner will just torrent the things because they make it so damn hard to enjoy their movies in their own way.

…ooookay. So let's say I buy a DVD and want to watch it on my iPod. How exactly is it going to get there without ripping it? Elves?

I can't read the whole article, but it seems to me that Apple and Disney are banking on a couple of shady assumptions: that I choose to use their software (which I do for a lot of things, but not for watching movies) and that I have a ridiculously dependable hi-speed internet connection (it's fast, but about as dependable as an alcoholic step-father.)

Want to know what would make me start seriously spending my expendable income on DVD's again? If the DVD's you get from the store include an unencumbered .avi I could throw into a folder on my media computer to watch whenever I want without having to go through the hassle of ripping it myself. Use the iTunes method of embedding your user account in the file so that if it ended up on the file sharing networks, they'd know whose door to knock on.

We don't need new systems of DRM. We need Hollywood to get its head out of its ass and start trusting the majority of their customers who don't want to grab their movies off of the internet but don't want to be bent over their barrel either, and if backed into a corner will just torrent the things because they make it so damn hard to enjoy their movies in their own way.

What I can't understand is how companies keep lowering the quality of media and yet they increase in popularity. everyone now has an HDTV, yet they buy heavily compressed MP4 movies? I guess that could also explain why all the current HDTV technologies are based on cheap to make, easy to sell LCD and plasma screens. I have a CRT TV from 1988 that has richer color and darker darks than any HDTV I have ever seen. If people really cared about quality they would have done more work on the flat picture tube technology from the 1980s.

As for digital downloads, I don't pay money for vague ideas, I pay for a physical object that I can use anywhere. And I certainly don't pay $10-20 for a movie when I can get a LaserDisc copy (full quality analog video, no compression) for about $3.