A movie you like comes out digitally; you and your friends want to watch it together late at night online when it comes out. Naturally you all don’t want to pay for one movie when online instant messaging apps such as Discord, Teamspeak, and Zoom exist, where you can hang out with your friends online whenever you all feel like it.
You rent the movie, hop online with your friends, and try and stream the movie, but disaster strikes: Google Chrome has an anti-streaming measure where it appears as a black screen to anyone watching you stream your browser playing copyrighted video.
Now your options are either go to a movie theater and each pay $17 dollars for a ticket, more if you want popcorn, or each individually buy the movie or streaming service subscription to watch the movie and watch it all at the same time, and if someone wants to pause, you all have to pause; otherwise, people will be out of sync. That’s at least $6 per person or more depending on the recency of the movie.
As a group, you will lose at least 20 dollars to legally enjoy a movie together, and that cost increases significantly if you all choose to watch it in theaters.
Now your techy friend found a way to pirate a movie instead; they have downloaded it on their computer, and they play it on their personal media player application. You can now view the film without any issues, as media players do not restrict the content you can watch. No money spent, everyone enjoys the movie together.
Now I understand that these black screens are an incentive to get people to pay for their own movie tickets, but it’s just a way that works against people from legally watching movies digitally.
Yes, you could look for a more obscure browser without this protection, since it mainly applies to popular browsers like Firefox and Google Chrome, but most people will not bother. Those who would most likely have enough technological prowess to pirate a movie and save their money instead.
People still go to theaters, but it’s an event that requires planning, paying for overpriced tickets in advance, and waiting in line for popcorn and food that can cost more than the $17 ticket.
The only legal way to just watch a movie is to have everyone go to your house so you can stream it on your TV. However, in today’s world, many people, including myself, have online friends from other countries who cannot spontaneously visit my home.
These online blockers should not exist; if people want to watch movies with their friends, they should be incentivized to watch them legally through other means instead of being restricted when they actually pay. Punishing paying customers, while knowing there’s an illegal alternative, drives many to choose that alternative and takes advantage of those who are unaware.
