iPod Anyone think the appearing-disappearing movies are sheer retardation?

[ravenvii]

Last week, I was looking around the iTunes movie store, and saw Hocus Pocus. I loved that movie, and wouldn't mind buying it, but I don't quite have the money. Well, today I do so I went on to look for it.

And guess what? It's gone.

Seriously, is there any rationality behind that? I mean, what's the point of putting movies - old movies to boot! - for only a limited time? There's not even a "AVAILABLE FOR A LIMITED TIME!" on the movie page. It just... appears and disappears without any apparent reason.

Are the movie studios seriously that irrational? Or am I missing something important?

 

[Cynicalone]

I think that the movie studios love to play this game. They have watched Apple become overly powerful in the music industry and they don't want it to happen to them. Makes no sense to me, who cares where the money comes from as long as someone is buying. I feel like the movie and TV industry is about 10 years behind music when it comes to online distribution.

And can I just say I would buy all my music from Apple if they would just give me Apple Lossless format in the iTunes Music Store. Until that day I'll just stick with singles and ep's from iTunes and full length CD's from retail stores.

 

[hexonxonx]

I've seen a bunch of movies that I've purchased disappear from the iTunes store a short time after I've purchased them. The last movie was The Lucky Ones. It was one of the first HD movies offered for download to non TV owners and I bought it. It disappeared a week later then reappeared. Now it's gone again.

I have learned to buy the movie when I first see it because it may not be there next week.