All Things D has a great article today on the Google Chromecast and the probable reaction from content providers.
Our own Paul St John Mackintosh has already written about Chromecast, so if you need to catch up, check out his excellent article. But if you’re just joining us, know that for just $35, the Chromecast allows you to watch what you can see on your Chrome browser on your TV. The article points out, correctly, the issue this presents for services like Hulu, which would rather charge you monthly for the privilege of viewing content on your TV.
And then they follow it up with this zinger:
“Of course, anyone with any common sense, who doesn’t work in legal or biz dev at a large entertainment company, knows that it’s silly to argue that something that’s on one screen shouldn’t be on another. And anyone who wants to buy a cable and connect their laptop to their TV could already do this.”
Sound like the whole, ‘Where should we be able to read our books?’ argument? Sure did to me. Every time I read an article like this, I just roll my eyes. One day entertainment companies are going to figure out that we don’t want artificial limitations on where and how we consume our content.
There was a recent thread on KindleKorner about DRM and “owning” of content. One new Kindle user was all ready to stop buying DRMed books because of difficulties with copying them from one device to another. Naturally, several people chimed in with instructions on how to use Calibre and remove the DRM.
Yep, DRM is so effective. Almost as effective as stopping us from watching stuff on our TV.
Of course, when I say “one day,” I assume I won’t still be around to see it. At least I’ll have plenty of excuses to pull out the popcorn and be amused by the antics of the media companies. It’ll give me something to do when I’m in assisted living.
I actually pay or Hulu Plus and there is still content I cannot watch on my television though my XBox app (or on my tablet). But, I have an HDMI cable, which I just plug into my lap top and problem solved.