Hot take: If I get the actual MP4/MKV/whatever, I don't actually care about this and think it might be a good thing, hell, I might actually purchase a couple movies and TV shows through it.
If it's just the same "license" that everywhere else gets you, then I ain't buying shit.
I don't know how it would even be possible with media files (since people know how trivial it is to relocate those) but I would actually be perfectly fine with a "license" if it used something akin to the GoG/GOO DRM model.
For those not aware, the gist of those kinds of DRM is that you authenticate with a server to get access to the file. The file may or may not be sent encrypted and then locally decrypted. After that, there is no DRM until you want a new version and you can copy it anywhere you want.
Unlike most here, I don't mind buying my media. Hell, I generally prefer it since I don't care enough to find a private tracker (and am not looking for that smoke on movies/tv...) and like having a proper 4k/hdr/whatever rip with whatever audio tracks I feel like ripping. Same with extras and so forth. With studios increasingly realizing they don't want physical media to cannibalize their service, we get nonsense of "Well... we might get Andor on blu-ray some day but, until then, enjoy a highly compressed and crushed version of what may be the greatest single season of TV ever made"
Theoretically, the various VOD services avoid that but... you still get the same shitty streamed copy for the vast majority. If I can get a proper 4k release that contains HDR data, actual 5.1 sound, and so forth for a reasonable price? Stick it in my veins!
Search your feelings, you know the truth.
Exactly, there's no way the studios are going to let them sell actual ownership.
Yeah, but there is no way in hell they somehow convinced movie studios to let us have drm-free files. It would be amazing but I can't see it happening.
They could stick to public domain & indie titles. They won't, but they could.
If a storefront starts making people pay money for public domain movie files I am becoming a terrorist.
It would be a nominal charge for storage, bandwidth, and indexing. Book stores carry public-domain titles, for profit, and most have no issue with that. You can always procure the same files somewhere else—they are public domain, after all. Those who pay are doing so for the convenience, not because they're forced to.
I can't hear you over the dastardly bubbling of my nefarious cauldron where I am brewing vile elixers.
For people who purchased lifetime plex pass, what does this mean for them?
Not much really. Plex hasn't presented this as a normal subscription based streaming service and more of a digital storefront akin to Google Play Movies & TV. The way I've always seen it is that Plex Pass was more like a software license since it granted all the features of the Plex software library. Maybe Pass users will get a discount or something.
Hot take: If I get the actual MP4/MKV/whatever, I don't actually care about this and think it might be a good thing, hell, I might actually purchase a couple movies and TV shows through it.
If it's just the same "license" that everywhere else gets you, then I ain't buying shit.
I don't know how it would even be possible with media files (since people know how trivial it is to relocate those) but I would actually be perfectly fine with a "license" if it used something akin to the GoG/GOO DRM model.
For those not aware, the gist of those kinds of DRM is that you authenticate with a server to get access to the file. The file may or may not be sent encrypted and then locally decrypted. After that, there is no DRM until you want a new version and you can copy it anywhere you want.
Unlike most here, I don't mind buying my media. Hell, I generally prefer it since I don't care enough to find a private tracker (and am not looking for that smoke on movies/tv...) and like having a proper 4k/hdr/whatever rip with whatever audio tracks I feel like ripping. Same with extras and so forth. With studios increasingly realizing they don't want physical media to cannibalize their service, we get nonsense of "Well... we might get Andor on blu-ray some day but, until then, enjoy a highly compressed and crushed version of what may be the greatest single season of TV ever made"
Theoretically, the various VOD services avoid that but... you still get the same shitty streamed copy for the vast majority. If I can get a proper 4k release that contains HDR data, actual 5.1 sound, and so forth for a reasonable price? Stick it in my veins!
Search your feelings, you know the truth.
Exactly, there's no way the studios are going to let them sell actual ownership.
Yeah, but there is no way in hell they somehow convinced movie studios to let us have drm-free files. It would be amazing but I can't see it happening.
They could stick to public domain & indie titles. They won't, but they could.
If a storefront starts making people pay money for public domain movie files I am becoming a terrorist.
It would be a nominal charge for storage, bandwidth, and indexing. Book stores carry public-domain titles, for profit, and most have no issue with that. You can always procure the same files somewhere else—they are public domain, after all. Those who pay are doing so for the convenience, not because they're forced to.
I can't hear you over the dastardly bubbling of my nefarious cauldron where I am brewing vile elixers.
For people who purchased lifetime plex pass, what does this mean for them?
Not much really. Plex hasn't presented this as a normal subscription based streaming service and more of a digital storefront akin to Google Play Movies & TV. The way I've always seen it is that Plex Pass was more like a software license since it granted all the features of the Plex software library. Maybe Pass users will get a discount or something.