Based on the responses here I think I missed a mark. I'm not talking about animated gifs and jpegs or some one-off piece of art. There was a mention of license, and I think that is closer to what I'm talking about. But it's the same issue.
Here's another facet: In the last 10 years or so very little I've bought as media will be something I can give my kids. No movies that I've paid for, no books, none of the music. They're not moving out of the house in the near future, but it has also been a dystopian nightmare to share games. $60 bucks and all of this digital convenience, but navigating the being logged in, and not logged in on another box sucks. Or perish the thought of having netflix on more than 5(?) devices in the same household. What do you mean I have to have a disc inserted when literally all that is on the hard drive is 500 gb of Call of Duty?
None of it is easier, it's just a different pain in the ass. Physical is not a solution, nobody wants the clutter. Not to mention that outside of books none of it works without some other technology backing it up. If IP law holds the way it has the last few years we couldn't even repair a VCR without pissing off some corp somewhere. Or having to have valid firmware for something to work? What if I don't want to keep the license to something? There is no process for giving that to somebody, or selling it by first sale doctrine, or swapping it for a different format.
At the end of the day I just want something to show for my money. Why does everyone act like that is so villainous?
xrayzwei's comments