Comments on: A Quick Look at the DRM restrictions of iTunes Movie Rentals

By: Robert

Robert — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 13:36:49 +0000

“And besides, if need be, a rented movie can be COPIED”
“This rental concept is flawed” that’s probably what the studio bosses were thinking when they looked at physical rentals. Then they came up with DRM and 24h hour limits

By: Ronjamin

Ronjamin — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 23:03:50 +0000

I’ll never “Rent” a $3.99 movie at iTunes when I can get them cheaper at the video store down the road and keep them for 5 days.

And besides, if need be, a rented movie can be copied……..and then watched as needed.

This rental concept is flawed.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 21:19:21 +0000

@Steve

No, I haven’t tried that. I might do that tonight and see if it works.

Thanks for the tip!

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:29:43 +0000

Michael, have you tried making a 2nd user account on your Mac Mini? You can sync 2 iPhones on 1 computer, but they need their own library, I’d try copying over the movie to the 2nd user account and sync from there?

By: Rick Rouse

Rick Rouse — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 18:40:04 +0000

Rent a movie from iTunes and you can’t watch it on AppleTV! Wow, thanks for the heads up. That’s just stupid. I’ve been tempted to give the rentals a try but I won’t even think about now. I’ll just wait for update! HD content for the AppleTV is what I’ve been waiting for… hope the studios don’t screw it up. Thanks again Michael for taking one for the team!

By: gustav

gustav — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 18:32:48 +0000

iTunes Movie rentals is amazing, really i love that.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:56:23 +0000

@Hells

“Thoughts on Music” is fine – but it doesn’t apply to video. Music was already being released DRM free in the form of CDs. DVDs are not copy-protection free – and it would be completely impossible to have a rental market where you pay $2.99 to $3.99 for a movie and then just get to keep it forever.

DRM is necessary for rentals to work – I don’t have a problem with that – but if they don’t free them up a bit, I’m not going to mess with them.

By: Ryan Righi

Ryan Righi — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:28:53 +0000

Apparently you can not copy a rented movie to a 5G or 5.5G iPod. Why Apple has not enabled this to a huge market, I am clueless. Now I must buy a new product if I want to watch rented movies from iTunes on the go, I can’t use the 5.5G 30 GB iPod I bought in July (what a waste).

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:28:50 +0000

Actually, I don’t think rentals work on the 5th generation iPods. I think you have to have a CURRENT generation iPod (iPod Classic, iPod Touch, iPod Nano).

Very restrictive

By: Hell's Donut House

Hell's Donut House — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:27:35 +0000

Has everyone in the world forgotten this?
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/

By: SteveJ

SteveJ — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:25:27 +0000

The 24 hour limit is bad enough. I can’t watch a movie in 24 hours as I watch movies on the train in half hour segments, 2 per day. That means at least 48 hours are need to watch even an average length movie. It’s disappointing. I was really looking forward to iTunes movie rentals. Oh well.