> So, if you really want to own a movie or a song, buy a physical incarnation of it, or make a digital copy of it.
Highly recommended. I buy disc copies of all my movies and rip them directly to my NAS with no additional transcoding, then serve them up via Plex. All the advantages of digital distribution, none of the drawbacks (the biggest one being "oops, we don't have the rights to that movie anymore").
Some of this stuff is pretty easy to do if you're willing to pay. MakeMKV is pretty cheap for just copying the disks, a a NAS can be bought off the shelf, and a cheap computer running Plex or Kodi can be bought off the shelf. The problem is really just that there's no good integrated solution.
I know how to do all of that but I still do not consider it worth my time. I would rather have the convenience of iTunes without the corporate overreach.
Highly recommended. I buy disc copies of all my movies and rip them directly to my NAS with no additional transcoding, then serve them up via Plex. All the advantages of digital distribution, none of the drawbacks (the biggest one being "oops, we don't have the rights to that movie anymore").