The Fine Print
March 9th, 2007 by 
emile
There’s always something in the fine print of the digital download services that are coming out these days that show the big media companies “Just Don’t Get It”, and Amazon Unboxed is no different.
I was looking into the Tivo/Amazon Unboxed integration, thinking how cool it is that you can remotely buy a movie, and it will be on your Tivo when you get home, when I spotted this gem:
What is the “Pay-TV Blackout Window”?
Due to restrictions from the video rights holders, most newly released movies will occasionally become temporarily unavailable for re-download from Your Media Library—even after they’ve already been purchased.
During this “Pay-TV Blackout Window” certain programs will be temporarily unavailable from the Unbox catalog and Your Media Library. This happens during the program’s run on a pay-cable channel.
The video will be automatically replaced and made available to you through Your Media Library once the “Pay-TV Blackout Window” has ended.
Does this sound utterly ridiculous? That’s because it is.
This is the equivalent of buying a DVD, being able to watch it for a few weeks, then having a Showtime/HBO/Cinemax representative show up at your door and take away your DVD until their channel is done running that movie. I can see that the original intention was for the pay-TV channel to be able to secure exclusive rights to a movie via “digital distribution to a video signal-viewing device” (my legal mumbo-jumbo), but this goes a bit too far. As far as I can see, this doesn’t serve anyone’s best interest, and only serves to make the Unboxed service less attractive.
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Posted in Technology | 
March 9th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
You are 100% right, the media companies don’t get it. They make too much money on DVD sales and pay TV rights to change the status quo. The only way their focus will change is if DVD sales drop - but why would that happen given the digital alternatives are so restrictive? It’s a horrible catch-22 for the media consumer.
One note about your post, digital video purchases such as those from iTunes or Amazon are still allowed to be viewed as often as desired during those pay TV windows. The only thing that is restricted is the digital delivery of that content - so no streaming or re-download. At least Amazon Unbox allows you to re-download your movies sometimes. I lost two movies from iTunes when my hard drive crashed and Apple told me I was SOL.