I've written about digital streaming services in previous articles. I usually discuss topics surrounding their impact on the industry. I discuss how they effect art preservation and how they benefit many due to low cost and ease of access. However, I still search out and buy physical media because it has what digital streaming still lacks, ownership.

I noticed this recently while streaming films on Netflix. If Netflix drops a film from its lineup, I can usually go out and find a physical copy. Then I started to think about the future, as physical media is slowly being phased out in favor of streaming, I wondered about those films dropped from Netflix. If there was no more physical media, how would anyone have been able to see that film anymore?

This is the question many have had since streaming replaced physical media as the norm. If Netflix or any of the other streaming services want to remove a film from their service, for any reason, they can. Despite the dangers this poses toward film preservation in the absence of any physical media, it also presents a question to the consumer, do you really own the movies you pay for?

With platforms like Netflix and Hulu you aren't so much buying movies as you are renting them for a monthly fee. In an instant your favorite film or show can be removed and you have no way of accessing it, unless you go out and buy a physical copy. There's also a chance that the film/show in question doesn't have a physical copy. In that case the film/show could be lost forever and you have little to no way of accessing it.

When I go out and buy a copy of a film on DVD or Blu-ray that copy belongs to me. I can do whatever I want with the copy I purchased and I can watch it whenever I want on my television. If I keep it in good condition, that copy will be with me for as long as I live or until I decide to sell it. All of the films I keep on my shelf are the ones I bought with money and there is no risk of those films suddenly disappearing out of my film library because of things like film rights changing between companies or other legal nonsense.

This is the risk consumers have to face if and when physical media no longer exists for a given medium. We will no longer be able to own the media we purchase and if we want to watch films the platform holds all the power and can dictate when you can watch a certain film. If Netflix's servers go down one day, that would leave you incapable of watching any film for an indeterminate amount of time. Hopefully, when streaming does becomes the only option, we can find a way to physically back up all of our media on physical drives. That way we can still have some form of control over the media we purchase. Until that time, my physical collection will continue to grow.