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from the we-don't-need-no-stinkin'-DVDs dept.
Remember when you could watch Netflix videos without an internet connection? With something called "DVDs"?
Well, now you can again, and you don't even need those circular shiny things. Netflix has finally made movies and TV shows available to download, so you can watch them offline, whenever you want, wherever you are.
In IT Blogwatch, we can't decide what to binge watch first.
So what exactly is going on? Laura Roman has the background:
On Wednesday, Netflix announced and implemented...the ability to download TV and movie titles on mobile devices.
...
At no extra cost...Netflix subscribers will now be able to save select content to their iOS or Android devices, then watch on the go without the need for an internet connection. Say goodbye to...in-flight movies, Netflix is now airplane-mode compatible.
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Tuesday December 06 2016, @09:17AM
Well, isn't it obvious?
...and only those devices. It's DRM'ed. Of course it's DRM'ed. And frankly, there's nothing wrong with this: Netflix is a subscription service, not a purchase-oriented marketplace.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday December 06 2016, @10:25AM
I will put this another way... Its not that I am concerned with paying a maid to clean my house... rather my main concern is that the maid may acquire information about my personal things, business affairs, whatever, while having access to the inside of my house, then sell that info on the open market. Or maybe once in my house, she duplicates my admission credentials so they can return uninvited anytime they want. Or start wasting my time with ads.
Its just getting too risky for my blood to admit business-backed softwares into my machine, as I simply do not trust it. Having pages of EULA/disclaimers tucked away in a little window tells me immediately this business has a lot of things they may do to me that they are claiming legal protection against my recourse.
Many businesses have betrayed customer trust big-time in an effort to monetize information they glean from their customer's machines, often without the customer's knowledge.
Or they use their admission to my machine to carry out wish-lists for others. Like nuking FTDI chips.
Even the nation's biggest businesses will stoop to this. Demonstrably. A lot of us permit ourselves to be treated this way. Some of us get madder than hell when someone goes out of their way to get in our machines to glean data, insert advertising, or wreak havoc.
In reaction, many customers ( myself included ), are very leery of running business-provided executables in our machines.
Especially with this new-fangled DMCA law out which forbids us from reading the code and determining what it does. To some of us, this is like handing us a legally-binding contract for our signature ( click "I accept" ), while making the reading of that contract illegal. Even illegal for others who can read it to warn us of its misleading content. Unless that, too, comes from businesses authorized to do so.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]