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UltraViolet Digital Movie Locker is Shutting Down (theverge.com)
UltraViolet, one of the entertainment industry's first attempts at creating a comprehensive digital locker service, is shutting down on July 31st. Users should link their libraries to the service of at least one retailer which can then be used to access their films and TV shows after the shutdown. From a report: UltraViolet's days were numbered ever since Disney, the only major Hollywood studio not to join, launched its expanded Movies Anywhere locker service in 2017. Not only did it offer broad studio support, but it could also be connected to major digital retailers like iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play, unlike UltraViolet. Additional resources: How to safeguard your UltraViolet library.
The best way to safeguard your library is to rip the disc. This is just the latest service to go under or change their TOS.
Pirates win again!
Ultraviolet's days were numbered before it was ever released. It was a vaguely mediocre idea, completely ignorant of the reality of the internet that makes the service completely worthless, foisted upon the population by some of the upper echelon in the pantheon of Really Awful People.
Good riddance, and may all their future endeavors end as this did.
Never trust the cloud.
UV was a fantastic idea. It's a shame one studio can cause it's undoing.
This is not going to create any confidence in consumers interested in buying digital goods like music, movies, shows, etc.
If they're gunna keep pulling the rug out from under the consumer, you can bet nothing like this service will ever find success. You can only burn people so many times before they go 'no thanks, been there done that. got nothing to show for it.'
THIS is why I always prefer physical media. When a movie or music album is literally in one's hands, they cannot take it away from you. Plus physical media can be easily loaned and borrowed between friends. When your media library is "in the cloud" on somebody's server, you don't really own the media. It's just available for you to lease or check out, not to own forever or to pass on to somebody else. When that service becomes defunct, so does your media library. Ooops! Physical media isn't without its problems (bit rot over time, physical damage, etc.), but I put more trust in a disc in my hand than in an account that could be shut down at any time.
Ultraviolet utterly killed digital copies, and I have always refused to use it -- because you pretty much have to sign up with every fucking movie studio to access it, or at least they put it out like that and people like me stopped using it.
No, I'm not giving Universal fucking Studios my name, email address, and shipping address to download a fucking digital copy. I have a code, that should be all you need.
Time was, you bought a DVD, took the little piece of paper, went to your iTunes (or other ways I believe), typed in the code and the movie was downloaded to your local library. From there, if you wanted to watch it, you synched it so whatever device you were using.
You didn't have a locker, you don't have to seek some asshole corporation's permission to watch a movie you have already paid for, you didn't need an internet connection.
The problem was that the entertainment industry was trying to assert on-going control over it. Fuck that and kiss my ass ... give me a way to download it anonymously with a one-time code, or understand I'm not using your shit.
As far as I'm concerned, Ultraviolet was dead on arrival, as it offered nothing at all to me as a consumer.
Ultraviolet reinforced the concept that if you bought a license for a show or movie, that license was universal and entitled you to stream it from anywhere So if you bought a movie on Fandango, you could use that license to view it from Vudu, and vice versa. No more having to dig through a half dozen streaming services trying to figure out which one you used to buy a particular movie. If you paid for the license, you could stream it from any of them (who supported Ultraviolet).
IMHO, a service like this should be a legal requirement for anything that's sold as a license instead of a physical product. It reinforces the concept that the digital licenses you buy belong to you, not to the service which happened to sell it to you.
Ultraviolet had a feature where you could share your library with up to 5 people. This allowed me everyone in the family to have a combined collection of movies. I'm currently sitting at over 300 movies. I'd specifically by titles that were ultraviolet compatible so I buy it once and everyone in the family gets a coffee
I've been plundering vudu's disc-to-digital program for a few years now. Get the app and go to dvdupc.com and enjoy $2 HD movie purchases.
...
Stop using 'The Cloud', it's stupid.
1. It wasn't about Disney, it was about access. Movies Anywhere isn't Disney, it's iTunes (read up on Keychest). Now it's Amazon, Google, Walmart, Fandango, AND iTunes in the US. No matter Disney's content foothold in kids and nostalgia land, getting that multi-prong service doesn't happen without a major service provider. 2. "EST" in walled gardens was and is a laughable premise so there had to be a somewhat common garden. AT&Ts attempt at EST will fail without a shared license locker. Especially since the list in #1 began to. 3. Studios benefit from a shared/transferrable product license to lower the power of iTunes in the marketplace. 4. Charging for an EST license when customers buy them and only use them like rentals (ie watch once) is beneficial to the services. However, people chose rentals because of lingering concerns like what's facing UV. So now you know why services will reluctantly support this shared digital locker service so you'll pay 3-8x the rental price. Now the real issue. UV had to ensure something existed to hold the licenses to avoid a massive refund or class action like what iTunes may still face for "kinda" dropping existing Apple-only ESTs (TOS declarations to the contrary). If Vudu or Fandango drop the licenses, then you have abandoned licensing. The only clear choice I see to minimize legal ranglings is to grant MoviesAnywhere licenses for all UVs. Studios have only 1 real choice to support their common desired business model. Finally, I agree that true ownership comes from holding the license in some way. However, ask yourself where your money is right now. The internet is where many of us put our life in one way or another(look at the site you are on). We will be assimilated.
The original codes either got your a iTunes video that only works on Apple devices and for the most part continues to only work on Apple devices, or a Microsoft Play Anywhere video that worked on select devices.
Microsoft Play Anywhere is now gone.
UV at least worked on most devices. Unless you of course flashed a custom Android ROM. *sigh*
Well back to my physical discs and it looks like I have a lot of discs to rip and will need to find copies of my UV movies I don't have discs for to download. Fortunately ripping for personal use and downloading movies you legally have a license to is still legal in Canada.
Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon what's the difference? All steal money from devs and control with walled gardens.
I lost media once due to a service shutting down.
Never again.
With DRM, you donâ(TM)t own anything. You only have a license that can be revoked at any time.
Remember, any content you pay for using any of these services is not really your own. Once they shut down, you may be able to still access the content you paid for, or you may simply lose it. Which is why I still prefer physical DVDs (or Blu-ray discs), even though both of those formats are dying. Once I own a physical object, the company which created that physical object cannot just come into my home and take it back.
You might as well have no copy at all. Fortunately DVDs and BluRays are easy to rip. Funny enough lots of people seem to share that opinion if you look at sales figures which go up once simple ways to rip became available.
The "digital copy" is the discs themselves. If you want a copy that will play anywhere you rip the disc to your computer. What's the point of signing up for a service and giving away your info and email for something that can be revoked at any time?
We own a blu ray player that collects dust and has never once been used to actually play anything. Every new disc is ripped to a file server and played from there. Much nicer having catalogue on screen in Kodi instead of thumbing thru disc binders. Also no piracy warnings and previews and annoying shit. No surprises about discs with read errors that won't play or screw up half way thru.
Given the cost and fragmentation of streaming services it's way cheaper in the long run simply to bargain shop discs and build your own fucking library. It's not like there is an infinite well of shit worth wasting your time with in the first place.
You mean to tell me that the digital content I purchased, not rented, will ripped from me.
Shocked, shocked I tell you.
Privacy
of what you choose to listen to or view.
With services like Ultraviolet, Netflix, Amazon, etc you are giving up
your right to anonymous viewing for the 'convenience of being someone
else's product while also paying for the privilege of it.
I stopped playing videogames when it all went always online for the same
reasons. Piracy is an option, but by pirating you are giving mindshare
to people who do not deserve it, while giving them an excuse for further
encroachment on rights to privacy which should be considered more
important than their anti-piracy efforts.
But today all we have left is the slowly encroaching arms of big
brother, ready to squeeze the dissent, free thought, and rebelliousness
out of us all.