This petition is for anyone wanting to buy the HayaoMiyazaki & StudioGhibli films digitally but find they cant do so legally anywhere online because they're only being released on DVD/Bluray.

This petition is to Disney who control the english dubbing and media distribution of Studio Ghibli films in America and to Studio Canal who took over from Optimum Releasing to control the distribution of Studio Ghibli films within the UK. Studio Ghibli is the distribution studio that releases the award winning Hayao Miyazaki films, amongst others, and includes: Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Ponyo, Arrietty, Princess Mononoke, Castle In The Sky, Grave Of The Fireflies, Porco Rosso, Pom Poko and My Neighbour Totoro.

None of the Studio Ghibli films are available to buy anywhere on the Internet. They are only released on DVD/Bluray forcing people to download pirate copies of the films if they want a digital version of the acclaimed anime movies. There are a multitude of rental and purchase services which could sell the film such as iTunes/Wuaki/Blinkbox/SonyEntertainment/GooglePlay yet Studio Ghibli refuses to make the films available for purchase or rental via any service, (not even via one of the many subscription services that could at least carry the films on a streaming basis like Netflix/Lovefilm/Wuaki/AmazonInstantVideo/HuluPlus). This denies the public the right to legally view a single one of the films from any source other than buying a physical disc which is not compatible with most modern devices such as phones, tablets, Netbooks and modern discless laptops or Internet Connected TVs that a growing majority of people prefer to use to view media and films with.

This absurd policy of withholding the films from distribution on any digital format encourages and promotes video piracy and forces the public to choose between using illegal piracy torrenting websites to gain access to the films, which are time consuming and unreliable, or purchasing outdated physical media discs which (in the digital age, provided that internet speeds are sufficient) are a waste of plastic and shelf space, consuming huge resources from the environment to manufacture and distribute compared to simply making digital versions of the films available over the Internet from services such as iTunes or Blinkbox which have no environmental impact or waste attached to them at the point of purchase whatsoever.

Denying the public the right to choose what format they wish to consume media on and encouraging piracy of their own films by banning their legal distribution is illogical and counter productive. It promotes criminality, denies the consumer the right of choice and costs the company that is perpetrating this ridiculous policy millions in lost revenue from people who would happily purchase the films legally if they were allowed, but don't want physical discs. In this day and age there is no reason no withhold a whole studio of films from digital sale.

Join this petition and urge the studios that hold the rights to these films to start making them available for digital purchase across the download and streaming retailers and services. The implications of this case will encourage all studios to focus more on the rights of the consumer in the near future when they are deciding whether to release other films on digital formats or not too but for Studio Ghibli, more than any other studio, given that they have not released a single film for legal purchase anywhere this is an issue that needs correcting.