Tuesday, August 21, 2007
You Only Thought You Owned That Google Video
Posted by Chris Gohlke in "THOUGHT" @ 10:00 AM
"Google pulled the plug on the moribund DTO/DTR portion of Google Video, in which users could pay to download videos to own or rent. It never caught on for various reasons, as outlined by the recent news stories detailing its demise. There are two things that struck me about the note. The first was the weaselly assertion that the company is killing the service to "improve all Google services." As if killing a service in order to improve service makes any sense whatsoever. In fact, I thought that this sort of BS was out-and-out insulting. How dumb does Google think its customers are? What was more important—and overlooked by most—is the simple fact that after August 15, you will no longer be able to view your purchased or rented videos. WHAT!?!?"
Even if you have already read about this, I'll give you a bit of a different spin on the matter. Google is getting a lot of criticism for closing down the store, as you can see from the post above. Frankly, if they should be criticized for anything it is for starting the service in the first place. They should have known better, which leads me to wonder if in fact they did and this was all an orchestrated, deliberate process to highlight the problems with DRM. Google has deep enough pockets and just enough ethical sensibility to open a store destined to fail to pave the way for non-DRM'd downloads, which is probably what they really want to sell anyway. Those the rented from the service are not really out anything whereas those that bought (although I can't imagine there were that many) are getting a refund (albeit in Google Checkout money). What are your thoughts? Do you agree or do you think I need to get out from under my tin-foil hat?
Even if you have already read about this, I'll give you a bit of a different spin on the matter. Google is getting a lot of criticism for closing down the store, as you can see from the post above. Frankly, if they should be criticized for anything it is for starting the service in the first place. They should have known better, which leads me to wonder if in fact they did and this was all an orchestrated, deliberate process to highlight the problems with DRM. Google has deep enough pockets and just enough ethical sensibility to open a store destined to fail to pave the way for non-DRM'd downloads, which is probably what they really want to sell anyway. Those the rented from the service are not really out anything whereas those that bought (although I can't imagine there were that many) are getting a refund (albeit in Google Checkout money). What are your thoughts? Do you agree or do you think I need to get out from under my tin-foil hat?
