I had this idea, and it’s probably dumb, but hear me out and let me know what you think.
I really like movies. Streaming services are currently the best legal option to watch movies afaik, but often they don’t have that specific and maybe also old movie I want to watch - even with 3 different streaming services. Then I could rent it, but paying like 8 bucks every time I want to watch a movie is too much.
If I could buy and download a free (free as in no drm or other bullshit shenanigans) digital copy of a movie for a reasonable price I would be all over that shit.
But as we all know the greedy capitalists can’t keep milking the same old cashcows if the users have a permanent copy that they can potentially also distribute so that won’t happen any time soon.
So my idea was what is we as a public group (movie enthusiasts) joined and made a company funded by something like gofundme or similar. The sole purpose of the company would be to buy rights to movies and hosting digital copies free to download for anyone.
Wouldn’t that be something. Legal digital movies by the public for the public.
Your idea sounds a lot like how the libraries operate here in Toronto. They have lots of media available to borrow besides books: movies and tv shows on Blu-Ray, video games for various consoles, etc. I’ve seen folks come borrow armfuls of Blu-Rays, all free of charge. You also have access to various media via streaming/online as well, although I’m not sure how extensive the collection is.
It’s not perfect though; there are limits on how many copies of a digital item can be checked out simultaneously. It’s a rather artificial constraint.
I wonder…what it would take to get a license to start an institution like a library to allow for others to borrow media like this?