Around the Net
The Real Reason Netflix Doesn't Offer Downloads: Copyright Law
- Fortune, Tuesday, September 8, 2015 4:06 PM
Netflix chief product officer Neil Hunt recently said the company doesn't offer customers the option of downloading movies because most users don't want the added complexity. Fortune's Jeff John Roberts proposes that the real reason is that Netflix isn't allowing downloads is that it doesn't have permission from the copyright owners.
"Just as studios don’t let movie theaters sell DVDs of what they screen, they won’t simply allow Netflix customers to make a copy for later," Roberts writes. "The permission to download is a separate type of copyright, and studios don’t go around handing it out for free."
