Hollywood has a long history of scrapping films and TV to save money, but the recent purging of "content" from streamers poses a new kind of threat to our cultural heritage
I think this is generally true, but I also have to say that most of the people I know who regularly pirate art can afford it. They just fervently believe it's okay to take whatever isn't yours if you can get away with it.
This is where organizations like The Criterion Collection and Kino Lorber play invaluable services in making these films available in good prints on DVD. If only Hollywood was more eager to follow their example.
Both of these companies are doing the gods' work, as far as I'm concerned, but for all their efforts, I doubt they've together scratched .025% of what's been produced. It drives me mad that I have no access to so many of the films I want to see on any given day unless I miraculously find them in an old DVD container at a thrift store. I'm going to look into buying a VCR next time I'm in the States, as VHS in that region is so much more numerous, and then use that to recover some of what's been lost.
“Piracy is almost always a service problem.”
-Gabe Newell of the video game platform Steam/Valve
I think this is generally true, but I also have to say that most of the people I know who regularly pirate art can afford it. They just fervently believe it's okay to take whatever isn't yours if you can get away with it.
Very true.
This is where organizations like The Criterion Collection and Kino Lorber play invaluable services in making these films available in good prints on DVD. If only Hollywood was more eager to follow their example.
Both of these companies are doing the gods' work, as far as I'm concerned, but for all their efforts, I doubt they've together scratched .025% of what's been produced. It drives me mad that I have no access to so many of the films I want to see on any given day unless I miraculously find them in an old DVD container at a thrift store. I'm going to look into buying a VCR next time I'm in the States, as VHS in that region is so much more numerous, and then use that to recover some of what's been lost.
Libraries are great for this if they have a used bookstore section where you can buy stuff they exclude from their catalog
Which is another way of media dying
True. I spend a lot of time searching through used DVD bins at street markets and various charity shops these days.