Marvelous news on the DRM front...
Aug. 12th, 2007 08:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpPart of Google Video's offering was a store that sold videos, delivered in a proprietary locked format that matched the video to your account and software player. You had to have an Internet connection to play the video, since the player had to "check in" with Google before it would play the file.
In the best of all possible worlds, that sort of sucks for the customer (no Internet? no movie!) and represents gravy for Google (which collects data on who watches what how many times), but I'm getting ahead of myself. That's really not the case, because...
It turns out, according to this story, that anyone who "purchased" a video from Google will no longer be able to view it after August 15, owing to a company decision to no longer offer the service.
Isn't that precious?
So, in addition to denying the customer rights granted under US copyright law (bought videos can be resold, lent to friends, donated to charity, etc. and excerpted and copied under the doctrine of fair use), now it turns out that "buying" a product means you're only really renting it for as long as the seller wants.
According to the article, Google's customers are getting a partial credit that must be used within 2 months to buy something of equal or greater value from a specified list of stores.
Ye gods.
Cheers...
In the best of all possible worlds, that sort of sucks for the customer (no Internet? no movie!) and represents gravy for Google (which collects data on who watches what how many times), but I'm getting ahead of myself. That's really not the case, because...
It turns out, according to this story, that anyone who "purchased" a video from Google will no longer be able to view it after August 15, owing to a company decision to no longer offer the service.
Isn't that precious?
So, in addition to denying the customer rights granted under US copyright law (bought videos can be resold, lent to friends, donated to charity, etc. and excerpted and copied under the doctrine of fair use), now it turns out that "buying" a product means you're only really renting it for as long as the seller wants.
According to the article, Google's customers are getting a partial credit that must be used within 2 months to buy something of equal or greater value from a specified list of stores.
Ye gods.
Cheers...
