I had this idea, and it’s probably dumb, but hear me out and let me know what you think.
I really like movies. Streaming services are currently the best legal option to watch movies afaik, but often they don’t have that specific and maybe also old movie I want to watch - even with 3 different streaming services. Then I could rent it, but paying like 8 bucks every time I want to watch a movie is too much.
If I could buy and download a free (free as in no drm or other bullshit shenanigans) digital copy of a movie for a reasonable price I would be all over that shit.
But as we all know the greedy capitalists can’t keep milking the same old cashcows if the users have a permanent copy that they can potentially also distribute so that won’t happen any time soon.
So my idea was what is we as a public group (movie enthusiasts) joined and made a company funded by something like gofundme or similar. The sole purpose of the company would be to buy rights to movies and hosting digital copies free to download for anyone.
Wouldn’t that be something. Legal digital movies by the public for the public.
GOG.com tried to launch that 9 years ago (source). The problem is getting the rights to sell the films without DRM. No major production company would want an easily shared file so readily available…
It would cost millions to get the rights for a single film. And you’re going to sell it DRM-free for $10? Good luck getting financial backing on that.