GOG.com Now Offering DRM-Free Movies

By Kevin Parrish
published

Usually, when you mention GOG.com, it's typically about DRM-free games. The site is an excellent place to purchase classic titles, as the company's philosophy is that if you make a purchase, it's yours forever. The games are also sold without the annoying DRM software, which in many cases seems to do more harm than good. Now the company is branching out into new frontier: DRM-free movies (opens in new tab).

Like the games it sells, GOG.com wants to offer classic movies as well as TV shows without the restrictions of DRM. Unfortunately, major content providers do not seem too thrilled with the idea. And who can blame them? Piracy is a big issue in Hollywood.

"We talked to most of the big players in the movie industry and we often got a similar answer: 'We love your ideas, but … we do not want to be the first ones. We will gladly follow, but until somebody else does it first, we do not want to take the risk.' DRM-Free distribution is not a concept their lawyers would accept without hesitation," GOG.com said in a recent blog (opens in new tab).

The move to offer DRM-free movies, it seems, will take time and patience. In the meantime, the company is offering a number of gaming and Internet culture documentaries that have no DRM and are relatively cheap. These include Minecraft: The Story of Mojang Deluxe Edition ($5.99), The 99% Occupy Everywhere ($5.99), The Dungeon Masters ($5.99), Once Upon Atari ($5.99) and more.

Most of the movies will sell for $5.99, the company indicated, and they'll also be in Full HD 1080p quality, or 720p. Those with a download quota or limited bandwidth can purchase movies in 576p instead. Don't want to download these files? Customers can stream them from GOG.com.

The blog pointed out that GOG.com is famous for its "bonus goodies," and will pack as many "goodies" as it can with each movie purchase. The blog also said that customers can expect subsequent movies released each week. Yay.

Currently, the company is offering two movies for free so that customers can get a taste of what's to come: The Art of Playing (opens in new tab) and TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard (opens in new tab).

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Kevin Parrish
6 Comments Comment from the forums
  • nitrium
    Good grief Hollywood really needs to get its head of its ass. With so many people DLing DRM free content from torrent sites (often because, you know, "it's DRM free"), you'd think they'd be thrilled with the idea if getting actual money for said content instead of the zero they are getting for it now.
    Reply
  • ratchet256
    I actually like the idea of this. For the value of what is given, 6$ actually isn't too bad. And they seem to be high quality versions too. Like 1080p movies here are closer to 8GB whereas most torrents are closer to 1.5 or 2GB. Also it's cool that they're all gaming/tech related.

    By the way, TPB AFK is an absolute MUST WATCH.

    Edit: Never mind they're all different. It just TPB AFK that's 8GB. Though most of them seem to bigger/higher quality than most torrents still.
    Reply
  • sea monkey
    most torrents are closer to 1.5 or 2GB

    I have one word for you, and that word is "remux".
    Reply
  • The_Icon
    I actually like the idea of this. For the value of what is given, 6$ actually isn't too bad. And they seem to be high quality versions too. Like 1080p movies here are closer to 8GB whereas most torrents are closer to 1.5 or 2GB. Also it's cool that they're all gaming/tech related.

    By the way, TPB AFK is an absolute MUST WATCH.

    Edit: Never mind they're all different. It just TPB AFK that's 8GB. Though most of them seem to bigger/higher quality than most torrents still.

    Depends on the type of rip, torrent sites have nothing to do with this.
    Reply
  • razor512
    These companies need to ask them self, is the current DRM working? In the absence of these DRM free copies being sold by GOG, will people still be able to find pirated copies of the movies?

    I personally will not buy a DRM version of a movie because I don't want to have to worry about that.

    DRM free copies mean that I can copy the movie to my tablet, smartphone, ancient PDA, pop it onto a flash drive and connect it to the USB port on the TV and play the movie, or put it on the NAS and stream it to any of my streaming capable devices without having to worry about compatibility.

    With DRM, you are locked into a specific application and if the service ever fails or they decide to end the service, then your content no longer works, (this has happened many times in the past (including with one of the largest companies on the planet also killing DRM servers http://boingboing.net/2008/09/26/walmart-shutting-dow.html

    Overall, all the DRM does, is make things less convenient for paying customers.

    DRM has failed the second it causes any paying customer to have trouble playing the content they purchased, on any device they would like to play it on as compared to a DRM free copy.

    For something more related to video, check out http://boingboing.net/2007/11/07/mlb-rips-off-fans-wh.html
    Reply
  • hst101rox
    A lot of movies on torrent are 8GB and up, though they have less seeders than the lower quality versions
    Reply