“It seems that Steve Jobs is looking for a new way to make money from consumers (Steve Jobs looking for a way to make money, that’s not news I hear you say … read on …),” Adrian Kingsley-Hughes blogs for ZDNet.
Kingsley-Hughes writes, “This time his idea is that Hollywood should start selling ‘premium’ DVDs that contain an iTunes-compatible version of the movie for an extra few bucks. This would allow consumers to legally have a copy of the DVD on any device – on any device that has the Apple logo on it, that is (which raises the idea that this is just another way of strengthening the ever-growing iPod/iTunes monopoly). It seems that fair use is OK in the eyes of Steve Jobs, as long as it comes at a price.”
MacDailyNews Take: Perhaps he thought we or his readers wouldn’t, but we clicked the link that Kingsley-Hughes supplied (“extra few bucks”) above. Then we read the article. In it, Saul Hansell blogs for The New York Times and reports that “the studios are hoping to create ‘premium’ versions of DVDs that include a copy of the movie that can easily be put on an iPod (and presumably a laptop with iTunes or an Apple TV).” So, it’s the studios, not Steve Jobs that seem to be looking for a new way to make money from consumers. Either Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has a severe reading disability or he’s a liar or both. Or maybe he’s just conducting a test to see if anyone can make up anything even if they themselves provide a link that totally refutes what they’re saying?
We highly recommend skipping the Kingsley-Hughes fabrication and instead reading Saul Hansell’s full blog post here.
Kingsley-Hughes continues incorrectly and irrationally blaming Steve Jobs for the Hollywood’s love of DRM and bundling for profit in his full article, Think Before You Click™, here.
MacDailyNews Take: Now, back to the real point: would you buy a “premium” DVD with an iTunes version of the movie US$3-4 more?
I don’t get it. You buy a physical DVD, and on it is a smaller version of the movie easily bounced to iTunes? Not a bad idea. Or is it just an extra-high quality download from iTunes for higher cost?
Why should I have to pay even more money for something that should be covered under fair use?
first?
that’s actually a good idea if they did that. i subscribe to Blockbuster online, get 6 movies per week for about 25 bucks, rip them in the computer in apple tv and ipod format, and also make DVD copies, and voila, i have a huge movie library. it they did this, i won’t have to bother to rip them and re-encode them myself. i’ll just copy the movies directly from the dvd into iTunes.
Don’t think of it as a Fair Use issue. Think of the few bucks as a convenience charge to provide a ‘ready to use’ file on your iPod/iPhone/TV.
I think what they SHOULD do is make it legal to rip a movie to iTunes just like they do with audio from CD’s.
Even if they added DRM that attached it to your iTunes, i think that would be OK, just let us do it legally.
OTOH, this would allow anyone to steal a movie if they rented it, which is probably the big reason they don’t do this.
starting to kick the sH@t out of these ass-hats who have bet on windozes thinking
OS X IS SO FAR AHEAD GO STEVE TAKE NO PRISONERS
That is so funny. MDN, you forgot to mention that iTunes runs on more than just Apple hardware. So, unless you are only counting iPod and like devices, such files would be usable on Window boxes as well. Only a retard would exclude desktops and laptops.
@JohnValjohn24601
Hello? Isn’t that called stealing?
You know I LIKE that idea. It would be nice to already have the iTunes version on a DVD to just plop it down into itunes and sent it to my ATV. Hmmmm….Now, how much is “just a few dollars more”?
Thank you, thank you, thank you Adrian Kingsley-Hughes for having the courage and insight to call Apple’s assault on the helpless consumer what it is when you say enhanded DVDs are “…just another way of strengthening the ever-growing iPod/iTunes monopoly.”
Us fortunate few who aren’t afflicted with MAC lemming-ism clearly see how Apple has destroyed consumer choice with I-Tunes and I-Pods. Kingsley-Hughes gets it. I don’t see why smug, holier-than-thou MAC lemmings don’t get it. I call on governments across the globe to outlaw Apple’s tyrannical monopoly. What can you do to fight this evil? Buy a Zune. Before it’s too late.
Your potential. Our passion.™
I guess you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t, huh?
They (either the studios or Steve Jobs/Apple) are trying to make it to where you have to pay for a version for your iPod, iPhone, etc instead of simply stealing it by ripping it to iTunes, and they’re still getting bad-mouthed. Isn’t that what the studios have been wanting all along? For ppl to pay for the content they produce. WTF?! Now it’s like, OMG I can’t believe they want me to pay for this! (“It seems that fair use is OK in the eyes of Steve Jobs, as long as it comes at a price.”)
Umm no, if I rip a copy of a movie to iTunes from a DVD that I’ve purchased, I’m most assuredly not stealing it. I BOUGHT the DVD in the first place. Get it?
Answer to MDN question:
No and no. Why would I want to pay extra to watch a movie on a tiny screen or broadcast it to my home theater via Apple TV and get a fuzzy picture?
Why would anyone?
Realist,
The Apple TV version could be HD (H.264 scales all the way up) and another smaller version could be for your iPod.
Get it, yet?
I’d be okay with having the studios charge $1 or 2 for the convenience of having the movie already prepped for the iPod. It’s a convenience charge – it’ll save me the still lengthy time to rip and convert, or the still lengthy time to download, and the space to store an extra copy.
But $3 or 4 is too much for convenience.
I would buy the premium DVD. My time is too valuable to rip stuff. I would also just download it from itunes.
2 bucks would be better – unless Netflix ships them – then 4 bucks is fine – or 5 or 6.
… but I’d readily pay 2
Handbrake
Handbrake is great but for the general public, I’m not sure. I like this idea and for what it’s worth it seems to be a good compromise.
However, I think that the studios need to understand that they could be make “MORE” money by getting away from physical media. Give me an all you can eat movie rental service via my Apple TV or other device and I would gladly pay $40/month for it.
What do you all think?
Well, as far as I’m concerned, I won’t buy another physical DVD until the HD/BlueRay thing is sorted out. If I am spending the money, it might as well be for some form of High Definition.
That being said, I would pay an extra few bucks for the ease of putting it on my ipod/iphone… But that would be $1-3 at the most. Once I own the DVD, as far as I see it, as long as I am using it for myself, I should be able to do anything I want to it. Once I start distributing copies, then trouble starts… So the original price of the DVD should include that conversion to iPhone size… If the studios want to save us some trouble… all the better.
Oh my God, a business is actually trying to make money? And at the convenience of the consumer. What has this world come to? And we all know that Steve Jobs is the only person to profit from Apple making money. Fscking communists.
yeah, what Aldarion said.
<rant>
Nope, not paying for a special version of anything for iTunes, no matter what format it’s in.
They already stuff heaps of crappy, no good extras on DVDs now, so encoding a movie for computers/iTunes/iPods can’t be much more effort than what they already go through.
Besides, copying a DVD and then watching a film on another device should come under fair-use, and not some scam where you pay for everything all over again for a different media format (cf vinyl & CDs… they scammed us good didn’t they?)
Freaking improve the material first and make it worth watching, you dickhead movie companies.
p.s. I haven’t noticed the writers strike having an effect on anything, has anyone else? For some reason, I was under the impression a good TV show/movie starts with a good story. I think most writers have been on strike since about 1950.
</rant>
“some scam where you pay for everything all over again for a different media format “
When you know the music or video media will become obsolete every decade or so, you’re better to rent than buy.
So I can play a bought movie on my computer, on my DVD and on my friend’s computer or DVD player BUT I cannot play it on my iPod even though I BOUGHT the damn movie. No effin way. Let ‘er rip my lad.
Perhaps a studio should make a DVD that will have an iPod compatible version on it (for free). That way people may buy that studio’s movie over a comparable competitors for that reason. That would be reasonable.