This pay per view download will self destruct in 24 hours! How Hollywood encourages file sharing

If you want to stop piracy, don’t do things that encourage it. Im my life at the moment, it is difficult to watch an entire movie in a single setting, which is the best reason for a Netflix subscription - no late fees if I keep a DVD for a week. I’m not that unusual, in fact I know quite a few industrious souls who do their movie viewing in installments, often using PVR’s as their tool of choice instead of the rented DVD.

Directv subscribers who have paid a premium to have a DVR and have paid to download a movie to it no longer have the same flexibility. Glad I’m not one of them, and I’ll bet more than a few are pretty angry.

If you’re a DirecTV subscriber and you watch their pay-per-view moves, you’ll shortly notice a change. A big change.

The company offers the moves via digital video recorders, but from April 15, once you’ve downloaded the film you’ll only have 24 hours in which to watch it. Currently there’s no time limit.

According to the company, the blame for the move lies with Hollywood. (Digital Trends)

My Netflix subscrition can’t compete with the immediacy of Pay Per view, and new releases tend to have a waiting list. True, I can also watch some Netflix content online, but again, not the new releases. While I’m OK with this many are not. It’s just too easy to download a portable pauseable copy of most new releases online. Most would gladly pay for content that is easier to get legitimately if it was just as easy to use.

Memo to Hollywood execs: the movie fan is not your enemy. Make content cheap, immediately available and portable. You’ll eradicate most of the pirates instantly and your army of high salary lawyers can be retrained to serve lunch to you at your favorite eatery.