



Let me tell you my story. I bought one of your movies on iTunes. It's called "An Education," and I've heard very good things. Sure, $15 is a lot to pay for a movie I'll probably only watch once or twice (no rental option was available), but I was stuck in an airport and desperate for something decent to pass the time with. After reading a profile on Carey Mulligan in Vogue at the Hudson News I was completely smitten and decided to watch her Oscar-nominated role no matter the cost. Since my laptop was out of battery, iTunes was my only option, and I attempted to download the movie directly to my iPad. Unfortunately, you can't start watching a download on the iPad until it's completed, and the slow airport WiFi only had me 2/3rds of the way before I had to board my flight.



Typically I wouldn't complain about not being able to download a movie on my airplane flight home, that's historically been an internet free zone, but despite that blessed Gogo Inflight Internet being available on my particular flight I still managed to encounter frustration in my quest to watch my film of choice: the port through which my iPad was attempting to download "An Education" over was apparently blocked, so I streamed some other movies over Netflix instead. Such a difficult life I lead.



After returning home at last, where my speedy connection quickly had the film downloaded at last, I decided that the iPad screen was just too small to truly enjoy the film. I had paid $15 after all, might as well get my money's worth! In my infinite wisdom I had purchased an iPad to VGA adapter along with my iPad which I had yet to use, so I fished it out of its packaging and plugged my iPad into my TV.



OK, if you were skimming to the good part, here it is:



"Cannot Play Movie," my iPad reads. "The connected display is not authorized to play protected movies."



I can't even begin to state my indignation. Who is this possibly helping? The only content that has this sort of protection is the sort of content that has been paid for directly. I'm not the first to be bitten by HDCP, and I won't be the last, but boy does it suck when it's not something metaphorical you're complaining about and instead something real poking you in the eye. And of course, only suckers like me who actually do their best to pay for their media will ever encounter the problem.



Us idiots.



An alternative route: I choose from one of many versions available for free and speedy download on the internet's many torrent sites. Can you believe that, movie company that I don't care to learn the name of? Despite your best efforts to frustrate your users, someone managed to rip your movie and share it with everybody! Never saw that coming, did you?







Somehow they found a way! Somehow they found a way!

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