That’s a good point I hadn’t considered from a legal standpoint before. I believe there’s also some network media players out there that can load up iso files, so in theory you could have a library of iso files that you load up as if you were playing the disc, complete with menus and all.

I have no idea if this is any better from a legal standpoint though, since you’d still be using what I assume is unauthorized software to bypass the DVD and Blu-ray encryption whenever you play the iso.

Long story short, they really need to carve out a DMCA exception for this specific conflicting case (which they’ve done for other conflicting situations), but I suspect there’s some strong lobbying against it by interested parties…

That one certainly came to mind. ;)

Yup. “Buying” a movie online is a grift, since all you’re actually doing is buying a license to stream as long as they decide they want to host it. Companies can, and have, removed movies people have bought because of things like studio distribution agreements expiring.

My dream would be for UHD Blu-ray quality (or better) DRM-free digital movie purchases, much like you already can with high res music. But until that becomes a thing, I’ll be buying a physical copy of any movies or shows that I want to own (rather than rent).

Nah. I’m sure there are multiple factors, as mentioned in the article, but another big thing preserving physical media is home theater enthusiasts. With a good system, the higher bitrate video and lossless audio on a UHD Blu-ray is noticable compared to most streamed content.

Even better, have a NAS with a raid array and data scrubbing for your primary storage, and periodically make backups to off-site storage (an off-site NAS or external hard drive are good options that don’t rely on commercial cloud services).

SD cards are far worse than hard drives or SSDs for long term storage. They are useful for temporary mobile data storage and transit, but anything you want to keep long term should be transferred off relatively quickly.

In the US, my understanding is that there’s a weird catch-22 where it’s legal to make digital copies of media you own for personal use thanks to Fair Use laws, but it’s illegal to break copy protection under DMCA law. So you end up unable to exercise your right to copy DVDs and Blu-ray discs because they have copy protection, but it’s perfectly legal to copy music CDs for personal use because they don’t have copy protection.

Personally, I find it extremely unlikely you’ll get jailed or fined for ripping your discs for personal use. It’s only if you start redistributing it that you increase your likelihood of legal problems.