Criterion, Hulu, and Amazon are the distribution end of a medium that is still defined by rules set up for a totally different business ecosystem. I’ve seen very little movement from them, or any other players, to move things in a future-facing direction.

It’s clearly not that they can’t see the value in digital distribution: just this week Atlantic Records announced that their digital sales are now higher than CDs. The old model doesn’t scale, why can’t they see past it?

(Of course, you could argue that the fact that these sites exist at all is proof that they do see past it. Perhaps it’s a matter of time, and I’m just impatient and frustrated because of reading about long tails and flat worlds that only exist in piecemeal.)

And your European friends often have the same complaints.

Criterion only has rights to show these videos in the United States (possibly not even Canada). I’m sure they’d love for you to pay $5 and watch from Panama, but their hands are tied by what can only be described as byzantine international copyright law.

And the DMCA doesn’t make it any easier. Don’t blame Criterion. Blame studios and lawmakers the world over.

As someone who produces cultural artifacts for a living (websites, in my case), I know that it takes a lot of work (and money) to produce these things. So I want to make sure that the people who make the movies, music, books, etc. get paid. My main gripe is that they are not giving me the opportunity to give them my money. ;)