UnBox, Keep Your Grubby Mitts Off My Hard Drive

[ssj2_goha]

What happens if Amazon should go belly up and no longer supports their player or just stops supporting the player/format because it is not profitable? Is the content then useless if you cannot download their software? Will Amazon be required to support/offer already purchased content in perpetuity?

That is actually a very good question. we all know amazon isn't dieing anytime soon but it is possible that they might stop the service if the revenue isn't what they want it to be.

[CrayonEater]

You don't lose your investment. Th material that you've downloaded is still available for you to download even if your entire PC went up in flames. Asking that you keep their player compliant doesn't diminish your investment.

Yes, it does. Aside from the example of Amazon going belly-up as another user suggested, what happens when, a few years down the road, Amazon decides to cease supporting XP and require Vista? Lots of people will still be using XP, and we'll be left high and dry.

Similarly, it's worth noting that Unbox's player requires XP SP2, and lots of people, including myself, use and need SP1 - what would have happened if Amazon had released a player that worked with SP1 (and they may have, I don't know) and now they no longer do - people like me would have been screwed. This is a perfect example of how Unbox and others are actively preventing consumers from protecting their investments.

[Radixmind]

having read thru the article on BongBoing about this issue, it seems to me that the real problem with this service is the vague nature of it's contract agreement. Amazon seem to want to lock it's customers into accepting changes to the service, and the software that delivers it, without telling them what those changes might be. your UnBox player might be friendly and innocent today, but next week it could have been replaced by an awkward paranoid monster that spends more time threatening to delete your movies than it does playing them. and you agreed to the change, without knowing what it would bring.

this looks like a bad product. my advice with bad products is; don't buy it. it's that simple.

[TheMadHatter]

Well said. Plus, I don't want to be tied to a specific manufacturer's hardware (iPod, etc.) Giving one company too much control over a market is inherently dangerous.

Remind me again... What percentage of the world's computers run an OS with the company name Microsoft stamped on it? I'm just trying to understand the point you were trying to make.

[ssj2_goha]

Well said. Plus, I don't want to be tied to a specific manufacturer's hardware (iPod, etc.) Giving one company too much control over a market is inherently dangerous.

Remind me again... What percentage of the world's computers run an OS with the company name Microsoft stamped on it? I'm just trying to understand the point you were trying to make.

THANK YOU!!!! I have been tempted to say that forever! i knew if i said it people would say it's just because i'm an Apple fan. But unlike M$ Apple REDUCES prices as their products become more popular.

OK I'll get off my soap box now.

[lantern]

You can choose to run any operating system you like on your PC. No one has said you must run Windoze (but try and load the Mac OS on a regular PC or Windoze on a non-Intel Mac) Can I run content purchased and downloaded from Apple on any MP3 player or do I need to buy their hardware? If I download content from Amazon, why should I need to use their hardware/software to view/use the content that I have purchased? If I purchase a [insert media content here], do I need to purchase special [insert equipment here] that will allow me to use that content from that specific publisher only? My DVD or CD will play in any DVD/CD Player (stand alone or PC), my newspaper or book doesn't require special glasses or lighting that only work for me to allow me to read it. Why should I be tied to Amazon's player or Apple's Ipod? Holy crap, if that were the case, every producer of media would require their own hardware/software or you can't use that media!!!

[ViRaL1]

You're not tied to a certain player anymore than you're tied to a certain media format. None of the examples stated are companies coaxing you into buying the content and later saying 'oh, and by the way, you have to buy OUR player to use what you already purchased.' I know at least in the case of Amazon, they tell you up front that the media is only playable on your PC using THEIR player and approved portable devices. As a matter of fact, the only way you can even GET the content from Amazon is through their player. As far as protecting your investment, it's not a valid argument to create a hypothetical situation that MIGHT prevent you from accessing your content and then saying 'this is how Amazon IS limiting you or revoking or diluting your investment.' I won't deny that your scenario is one of many possibilities, but whatg IS and what MIGHT BE someday are two different things. I'm not advocating UnBox, or saying that anyone else should use it. For my part I've installed the player on a desktop and a laptop and I've downloaded my free TV episode to try it out. As of yet, I still haven't seen anything Amazon has done OR said that leads me to believe that I will lose my investment under reasonable circumstances.