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.
Film companies aren’t generally in the business of selling the rights to their products. As you say, it’s a cash cow they can keep milking for years. They can re-release the same film on new platforms and continually contract it out to different streaming platforms for years. Why would they sell you a distribution license in perpetuity for anything resembling an reasonable cost?