Buy a film a few times

WalMart joins the digital media revolution by allowing (allowing!) purchasers of the Superman Returns DVD to download it digitally as well, for a fee. Says TechCrunch:

"When customers buy “Superman Returns” at Wal-Mart, they can choose to pay $1.97 more to play it on portable devices, $2.97 more to play it on PCs or laptops, or $3.97 more to play it on either portable devices or PCs/laptops. But not in iPods."

Or, alternatively, the copyright holders could actually sell people the movie they've paid for in a format that is transferable, portable and can be viewed in any way they want instead of this DRM-laden nonsense. WalMart's move is far, far funnier than BBspot's purposely satirical MPAA lobbying over home cinemas ("just because you buy a DVD to watch at home doesn't give you the right to invite friends over to watch it too. That's a violation of copyright and denies us the revenue that would be generated from DVD sales to your friends").

It seems I will never tire of saying that Your Audience is not Your Enemy, and never run out of people to say it about. Consumers palpably want transferable, portable media that they can play on any device. They'll even pay for it. But if they can't pay for it, because no-one is willing to sell it to them, they'll just take it off BitTorrent. So it goes.