Customers uncertain after app remains downloadable after company's Chapter 7 filing.
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Redbox app starts going away, removing purchased content from owners
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Ultimately access to the content is going to go away soon irrespective of the apps being available or not, because nobody is paying their CDN bill - they are bankrupt.
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Yet another comment proclaming the un-challengable truth that if buying isn't owning, piracy isn't theft.
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I really hope someone is able to buy and revive the Redbox assets as the last real rental option remaining. Not sure if the app would be salvageable though (by which I mean it's a lot harder an expense/liability to take on for a potential asset buyer) which sucks for users
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Scarecrow Video in Seattle, one of the last remaining physical video rental stores, has a rent by mail option. Definitely worth checking out if you want to rent a DVD or other physical media. They're a nonprofit and every bit helps them keep doing what they're doing.
scarecrowvideo.org
Save Our Scarecrow | Scarecrow Video
Scarecrow Video needs your help now more than ever.
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and this is why over the past few years i've gone from having abandoned optical media, to now buying the movies i want to watch in physical form (and this means slowly updating my old library of DVDs to blu ray or UHD instead of relying on disney+ or any other streaming service for the higher quality versions).
edit: Also your local library may have media to rent, including in UHD. Been watching movies like that, too.
edit: Also your local library may have media to rent, including in UHD. Been watching movies like that, too.
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I had no idea Redbox was going away, I still see their kiosks out and about. So are they even getting new inventory? Who is receiving the money when people use them? Do they even work?
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Not sure about new inventory, if the kiosks you see are still powered up and working though then its at least at locations where the landlord got paid their cut, Chicken Soup started stiffing and missing payments which led some stores to shut down or totally remove the kiosks.
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I'm still miffed that Netflix refused to sell the dvd.com business rather than shut it down, but if RedBox/Chicken Soup had managed to buy it I bet the cost would have just accelerated the collapse of Chicken Soup and killed it anyways unless a buyer could be found for the dvd.com and redbox assets
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considering that the contracts with CVS and 7-11 ended in 2023 and they haven't renewed/pulled the kiosks, it's a safe bet nothing new is being added. Whether they still work..... hmm.... i haven't used one in over 2 years now. Wonder if it's worth trying, if only just for kicks.
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Surprised I'm just reading this now. On my Roku the Redbox app was marked as being "No Longer Available" a week ago.
Much like everyone else has stated; If you "purchase" media (music, movies, TV shows, games & more) but are not able to store it locally in a DRM free state then you are not really "purchasing" that media. Instead you are "purchasing" a license to access that media. A license that can be removed or revoked at any time.
Much like everyone else has stated; If you "purchase" media (music, movies, TV shows, games & more) but are not able to store it locally in a DRM free state then you are not really "purchasing" that media. Instead you are "purchasing" a license to access that media. A license that can be removed or revoked at any time.
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If all I'm buying is a license, then I have access to that media in perpetuity. If they break the terms and deny me access, then I'm not going to feel bad about downloading it elsewhere.
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I'm sure if you read the terms closely "perpetual" or "lifetime" was defined as "lifetime of the service" and not as actual perpetuity
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My best source of DVDs (and Blu Rays) is my local thrift stores and garage sales. It's often just as cheap to buy them there as it would be to rent them. Biggest problem is selection is quite random. But I just add anything interesting to my collection and rip them to my Jellyfin library (also handy for being able to lookup on the go what I have in my library so I don't buy duplicates).
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Video from a Redbox site tech. They've been stiffed pay checks and have houses full of DVDs for the machines that they don't know what to do with now.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGW08Gvr4bM
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGW08Gvr4bM
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I don't make digital purchases from anyone for this very reason - these companies have a long track record of denying access to the stuff you bought. Not a piracy issue - plenty of cheap, legal, physical media around.
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Yeah, it's pretty random that they were purchased by a self-help book company trying to chase "growth" and diversification, only to end up debt laden from their dumb buying spree and collapse and tank everything with it. Then again, that's actually pretty on par for these flash-in-the-pan successes as they desperately try to repeat their original one-note performance
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I think the most disappointing was the shutdown of Ultraviolet after years of pushing it hard as a benefit by the studios
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I bet those words don't even appear in the terms, but I don't really care about the small print. If they are going to say "buy" or "purchase" on the website and not "rent", then that means I own it.
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The kiosk in our local grocery store has been dead for months. I'm surprised they have not hauled it to the back to rent the space to someone else.
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I definitely haven't, but the same argument applies to all digital purchases. I keep a spreadsheet with all of my Steam purchases in it so that if Steam ever shuts down I'll know what I own and can download elsewhere.
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Physical media is also what I do. For anything that's only available online, I buy it and screen-record it so that I'll always have my own copy.
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There might be contractual stipulations on if/when/how they can touch or position it that they're hesitant to break even though Redbox has already breached terms of the contract themselves leading to the deactivation and failure of redbox to dispose of the unit
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For me, the physical media is just a way to legally acquire the content. Most of it sits in a box somewhere. I have everything ripped to my NAS and accessible via Jellyfin. Probably technically piracy, but, ethically, I'd say no, as long as its for my own use and I don't distribute it.
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Question for the Blu-ray heads: do all modern discs work on modern players without a net connection?
I’m very much considering buying everything I care about on Blu-ray, but not if there’s any online requirement.
I’m very much considering buying everything I care about on Blu-ray, but not if there’s any online requirement.
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I believe you should pay for the things you consume. I want content creators to get paid for their work.
What we have now with streaming and digital purchases is not a fair exchange. If I PURCHASED I expect to actually have access to my files regardless of the company's financial state. When I bought physical DVD's it didnt matter if the company that produced the movie went bankrupt, I was still free to continue enjoying the DVD.
The social contract is broken. If purchasing and owning are marketing weasel words then piracy isn't stealing.
The law isn't just. I will not comply and be forced to purchase content I already own again on another platform that will screw me out of what I rightfully owned.
What we have now with streaming and digital purchases is not a fair exchange. If I PURCHASED I expect to actually have access to my files regardless of the company's financial state. When I bought physical DVD's it didnt matter if the company that produced the movie went bankrupt, I was still free to continue enjoying the DVD.
The social contract is broken. If purchasing and owning are marketing weasel words then piracy isn't stealing.
The law isn't just. I will not comply and be forced to purchase content I already own again on another platform that will screw me out of what I rightfully owned.
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Don't know for sure because I never play my Blu-rays in a player - I rip them and strip the encryption with Mkmkv. Haven't encountered one yet it won't rip.
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Not here, but I did have Mortal Kombat on PSN before Sony pulled the plug on the PS3's store.
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Yep. I followed exactly the same path as you did. I had a very extensive physical media collection, but streaming seemed like it was pretty stable and it sure is convenient.
But now stories like this one - and there have been others - show that, if you depend on someone else's equipment to play a film, you don't really own it. You just own the right to watch it using their equipment, so long as they're in business and can't find some way of changing the terms.
So now I'm updating the parts of my old library that were on DVD to Blu-Ray, and have fallen into this routine: If it's a new film, I'll rent it the first time on Prime. If it turns out I really like it and expect to watch it again down the road, I'll buy the Blu-Ray copy for my library. I'm looking into Plex for self-streaming. That still depends on someone else's service, but I'll have the physical backup if that ever goes down.
So long as disc players are available, I'll always be able to watch my library, at least, regardless of what happens to any of the streaming services.
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Between streaming sucking, 90s/2000s nostalgia, and trying to break the addictions created by tech company algorithms we're all sliding backwards in time. I actually ended up watching some OTA TV last night after my internet went out and had a good time doing it! I've been buying music on CD for the past few years, and will likely start to build a DVD/BluRay collection in the immediate future. And as a phone nerd I have a voip landline in my house with rotary phones to boot
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So far, yes. I haven't run into a Blu-Ray disc yet that won't play on my nearly 5-7 year-old Sony player, which I've disconnected from the Internet because Sony deprecated the model and all of its streaming apps. I picked up a Firestick for the streaming function, and just use the player for discs.
Sometimes the discs have optional "extra content" (beyond the usual commentary track, bloopers reel, etc. that's contained on the disc media) that requires an Internet connection, but simply playing the media hasn't required one so far.
My most-recent Blu-Ray purchase was Dune 2, so that should cover the most-current generation of discs.
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It's been a while since iTunes music files were DRM-free.obligatory xkcd:
My pet peeve, though, is buying analog formats (vinyl, cassette) from big name acts and they cheap out by not providing a download code. In contrast, almost all artists on Bandcamp provide download codes (and in-app streaming) with analog media purchases.
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