Posted on with tags Self Hosting, Philosophy, and Art
Owning physical media is more important than ever; moreover, DRM is evil.
If you purchase your movies/music through Amazon, Spotify, SiriusXM, AppleTV, &c. you really only purchase a license for use that can be revoked at any time. This makes your media access fragile: your access to the things you have purchased is one inter-corporation lawsuit away from being revoked.
Whether or not you should be consuming mass-produced, copyrighted media is another question, but purchasing (i.e., legally obtaining) DRM-free versions of your media has never been easier. In fact, buying/ripping CDs or downloading music from Qobuz can be cheaper than a spotify subscription. These days, you can even play Blu-ray discs from the command line. (Generally speaking, you can find most Blu-ray disks on eBay for less than the digital asking prices for the same movies!)
![[My CDs and DVDs]](/img/physicalmedia.jpg "My CDs and DVDs")
Physical media is owned in perpetuity — no fees or subscriptions
So, the point I’m making is that purchasing media like people did 15 years ago is better than the current system. The trade-off of course is that you lose the convenience of streaming, but is it that much of a convenience anyway? I think the healthy approach, the one that most self-effacing people would agree with, is to interact with the digital sphere intentionally.