Streaming Services Erode Traditional Notions of Ownership
Columbia House, a mail-order music club that operated for 71 years, has reportedly closed its doors. The company's website announced in August that it would stop taking new orders on September 15, but the message has since disappeared, leaving behind only speculation and nostalgia.
At its peak in 1996, Columbia House claimed 16 million members, with many people like my friend and his three brothers opening multiple accounts from the same home address. The company continued selling music until the late 2000s before declaring bankruptcy in 2015. It survived another decade by hawking DVDs through Edge Line Ventures LLC.
The rise of streaming services has disrupted traditional notions of ownership, making it increasingly difficult to hold onto physical media like CDs and DVDs. Netflix's shift from a DVD-by-mail service to a streaming platform is a prime example. The company started with 1,000 titles in 2007 and quickly expanded to offer thousands more through deals with studios.
Today, subscribers face the reality that licensed content can be removed at any time, as evidenced by Netflix's upcoming loss of dozens of films, including the original Rocky movies and Schindler's List. This impermanence is not limited to streaming; even video games can become unusable if servers are shut down.
The lines between ownership and licensing have become blurred, with companies like Amazon and Ubisoft using language that can be misleading to consumers. A California law now requires digital storefronts to clearly label licenses as such, but the issue remains contentious. The European Commission has declined to propose a requirement for abandoned games to remain playable, but it plans to bring publishers together to discuss the matter.