The "Disney Vault" and Other Ridiculous Content Control

Old school content owners and distributors need to wake up. Here’s my consumer perspective on why alarms should be going off. First, I'll recap how my content-consumption mindset has changed over time. Then I'll try to synthesize what I think it means. Once upon a time I had a naïve mindset.

Back in 1997/1998, I thought that everything was fair game. If I didn't own it, I could download it. Sure I purchased stuff, but that was limited to computer upgrades paying for a DSL connection with the profits from my summer job at an ISP (<ping + >fps = >frags!). As far as content, I didn’t think twice about how or where I got it. Not much changed in the next 8 years. College was file sharing paradise. Enter the real world where I found a risk-averse mindset.

Things changed after I realized:
(1) a ton of people were being sued;
(2) I no longer had a ‘perceived immunity’ as a college student; and
(3) I generally found better things to do than consume content.

The problem is I went back to college (OK, law school, college part deux). Now that I’m back I realize:
(1) people are still being sued;
(2) I definitely lack any ‘perceived immunity’ as a law student; and
(3) I generally try to find anything to distract me from my homework.
And that is what has led me to my modern mindset.

If I can’t find a cheap and easy way to access content, I either won’t bother, will lose interest, or will forget about it. For example, I’ll see a movie trailer that I think looks decent, but not the kind of movie I’ll spend $13.00 to see in a theatre (reserved for visually stunning pictures, no comedies or dramas). Months will pass; the DVD will release. I’ll never notice.

Here’s a simple cause and effect table I think sums it up:

Big content decides to...	So I...
Limit the streaming of a television series to the three most recent episodes	Won't bother.
Allow access to five random episodes from season 3	Won’t bother.
Not offer a movie in a streaming format	Find something else.
Charge 30 bucks for a single season on DVD that I will watch one time	Find something else.
License one out of ten seasons to a streaming service	Lose interest.
Force me to go to their site rather than a site with aggregated content	Become annoyed.
Periodically change what episodes are available	Won't bother.

Conclusion
There’s simply too much good stuff out there to get stuck waiting. More restrictions on content result in shrinking audiences and the continuation of piracy. If my anecdotal story is at all representative, as old school content owners and distributors continue to resist change, they will begin to see that easy access to alternative quality content erodes their bottom line.