In Defense of Physical Media

This is not going to be a suddenly crazy new stance for most of my online mutuals: I'm known by most as "that guy who has way too many laserdiscs."

An excuse to post my LaserDisc collection? Don't mind if I do!

This week, Playstation announced that they were removing over 500 films from their streaming service because of a lapse of rights. This goes beyond "you can't stream it" or "you can't rent it." If you had "purchased" it on there, you will also lose it. If this is news to you, I truly am sorry. Because a streaming service can only provide a film as long as they either own the rights or they have a deal for those rights - when you "purchase" a film on there - you ain't buying it. You are "long-term renting it." Check the fine print you always just click away.

Sony is not special in this relationship to video media - its built into all streaming services. So if you (like me, I must confess) purchased any amount of films on a streaming service - no you didn't. You're long-term renting it. And also once that service goes away, those rights vanish too. I can't count how many "Video On-Demand" services I've watched pop up and quietly fade away.

This is where I'm tempted to jump into the spiel of "just own them," but it feels... wrong. Not everyone has the resources to own every single film they want to. I mean, if you can - do it. And don't buy new unless you want the special features that come with it. While there is something to say about a 4K fancy steelbook with all the trimmings from Criterion, if you're just looking to have a good time, a thrifted DVD will do just as well. You will be surprised how many great films and shows you can find on the cheap at a Half-Priced Books, Goodwill, or your local thrift store.

I live in a small county in Kentucky. I'd describe it as "semi-rural." Our Public Library System has a ton of movies and shows to rent. If I lost all streaming services and all my movies vanished and I only had our Library's collection of movies and shows to rely on? I'd actually be okay with that. And just like a bunch of libraries allow you to request a book - you can also request a movie. If they can't get it over inter-library loan, there's a good chance they'll buy a copy. Our library also has access to Hoopla for renting and streaming thousands of shows and movies. Our library doesn't have Kanopy, but tons of libraries and educational systems do - you should check if your library does.

A friend of mine once commented that he stopped pirating games because Stream made it too easy to just buy All The Games. And streaming services were like that for a while. It was just so easy to get everything you wanted to watch. But now it just feels more and more that ads are taking up more screen time than the video itself, that the video I want to watch is on a "premium account" I need to pony up more coin for, or its only on this exclusive service now. And this is kind of an extension of "X As A Service." Everything is migrating from the "you own it" realm of use to "you rent it." Even printers are trying to get folks to be convinced you are simply renting the printer as long as you pay a service.

But with physical media? Away from the digital realm? No one is keeping me from watching my LaserDisc copy of The Princess Bride.

Well...

No one except my broken LaserDisc player.