>Encourage the death of all hard copies of media, even thumb drives
This is a pipe dream that doesn't think more than 5 years into the future or understand the realities of distribution.
The properties inherent to physical media are some of the most consumer friendly aspects of distribution. Some can be approximated with a software-only approach, provided that the content provider wants to not only take the time to implement, but also wants consumers to continue to have those benefits. There are also properties of physical media that are impossible to duplicate with the internet, and what they do provide relies on them never going offline and never stop serving any each and every piece of content.
I have NES cartridges in my closet that are much more versatile than games on steam. I have a netflix streaming account that I _can not_ use when I visit my father because he doesn't have an internet connection and I can't cache netflix movies on my laptop. I have a friend, who because of hardware failure, can only use xbox dlc if he is connected to the internet (I don't really know the DRM specifics, but on the original hardware he didn't need to be connected).
I put up with some of these limitations because I hope they are temporary and digital distribution companies will eventually get their act together, but they're still a "last resort" option when I buy media.
>The properties inherent to physical media are some of the most consumer friendly aspects of distribution.
I don't think so. What's consumer friendly about plastic garbage that takes up space, is ridden with unskipable ads, DRM to boot, and is a pain to handle?
The true "problem" (for those relying on this business model) still remains the reality that you ultimately cannot force people to pay for virtually cost-free distribution of content. You cannot stop free sharing either. All efforts to do so will eventually result in heavy censorship (actually, copyright and free speech are fundamentally at odds).
Pretty much all problems with digital media you describe are caused by this failure to accept reality on the side of distributors. It's not a problem with digital media, it's a problem created by trying to make digital media like physical media (-> being able to control distribution), when the former is so much more powerful, versatile and plain better than the latter. Distributions as a business model is dead. The future of digital media is one that doesn't rely on it, and embraces cost-free distribution and free sharing.
What's consumer friendly about physical media is simplicity & independence. My 2-year-old can climb onto the bookshelf, dig out whatever disc he wants, open the Bluray player, insert disc, close it, and watch it - THAT is "consumer friendly". Sure there are things to complain about with discs, but those are way into the "first world problems" realm.
When you buy a disc, it's yours. No remote server can deny you access to it on a whim.
There was an old saw "don't underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon stuffed with magnetic tapes." Until we get consistent >25Mb/s streaming cheap, you're not going to see Bluray-quality video from Netflix et al ... but a 2-year-old can deliver it in seconds.
If you're seriously basing consumer-friendliness on the ability of a two-year old to operate it, then I'm sorry, but I fundamentally disagree with your idea of consumer-friendly.
Also, if you can teach a 2-year-old to put a disc into a player, you can most likely teach him to click on (or touch) an icon in a digital media library. There's no difference. None at all.
>When you buy a disc, it's yours. No remote server can deny you access to it on a whim.
Again, that is not a problem with digital media, that's a problem of people trying to control digital distribution, which is impossible. I have loads of nice .mkv (and some older .avi and .mp4) files here, in addition to a huge music library, and short of a double harddrive fault, nothing can deny me access to them.
Many physicals disks have copy-protection schemes, too, by the way. What if the industry for disk players decides to not make any players anymore that can play disks with a certain copy-protection scheme. Or switch to a new format of storing media, as they did quite a lot of time in the past. It's the very same thing as a "remote server denying you access". There's no guarantee you'll be able to play these disks you own in 5, 10 or 20 years. I have that guarantee, because short of the complete replacement of the general purpose computer, I will be able to play my aforementioned media collection.
>There was an old saw "don't underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon stuffed with magnetic tapes." Until we get consistent >25Mb/s streaming cheap, you're not going to see Bluray-quality video from Netflix et al ... but a 2-year-old can deliver it in seconds.
Netflix (and other streaming services) are as much part of the problem as physical media are. Streaming is DRM, no matter how you turn or twist it. You pay per watch, and you don't own what you watch. And again, I'm not paying for something that's cost-free to begin with (distribution). Distribution-based business models are dead, and trying to save them will only lead towards more shit like SOPA, ACTA and the DMCA, which hurt the internet and Free Speech.
This is a pipe dream that doesn't think more than 5 years into the future or understand the realities of distribution.
The properties inherent to physical media are some of the most consumer friendly aspects of distribution. Some can be approximated with a software-only approach, provided that the content provider wants to not only take the time to implement, but also wants consumers to continue to have those benefits. There are also properties of physical media that are impossible to duplicate with the internet, and what they do provide relies on them never going offline and never stop serving any each and every piece of content.
I have NES cartridges in my closet that are much more versatile than games on steam. I have a netflix streaming account that I _can not_ use when I visit my father because he doesn't have an internet connection and I can't cache netflix movies on my laptop. I have a friend, who because of hardware failure, can only use xbox dlc if he is connected to the internet (I don't really know the DRM specifics, but on the original hardware he didn't need to be connected).
I put up with some of these limitations because I hope they are temporary and digital distribution companies will eventually get their act together, but they're still a "last resort" option when I buy media.