Days when we owned media are numbered

I believe Video Vision in West Duluth and Superior are still open.  Redbox locations are abundant around town.  Is 8th Street Video on 9th Street still open and renting movies?

8th Street Video On 47th

You may not "own" as much of your media as you think now.  Increasingly, all you actually own is the physical media the content is recorded on, plus you get a license to use the content, subject to whatever restrictions the content producer would like.  These restrictions may be enforced by some sort of DRM.  Actual content ownership is retained by the content provider, and the license can be terminated.

Content providers would very much like to get rid of traditional legal concepts like fair use and the first sale doctrine, and they are using licensing and DRM to do so.

Expect selling or lending used copies of digital content to get harder ad harder to do in the future.

As long as individual creators of content have access to the means of production, there will always be physical media. I create my own music, record it (usually on my own gear) and reproduce it and sell it on tour and in a handful of independent record stores. I do hate it when some other musician I meet on the road looks at my album and says, "Hey, let's trade records!" and when I give him a copy of my clear blue vinyl he gives me a f+*#ing download code on a slip of paper.

And in today's DNT, we learn that Mr. Movies in Duluth is closing. I guess we must be psychic, because none of us mentioned that as an existing video store in Duluth.

I don't understand what this is supposed to mean - who cares about the physical media? Burn your own DVD if it means so much to you.

The reason owning a physical chunk of media is a big deal is that you don't really own the downloaded file. AND, the industries that want you to download a file are actually renting it to you, but not really telling you that. Try re-loading your iTunes library a couple of times and you'll learn that expensive lesson. In music, the download has also altered our relationship to an artist and their intention. Instead of listening to an entire album as conceived by the artist, we experience music in little bits and pieces mashed up with other artists. It's kind of symptomatic of the ADHD world we have created. Another thing about the physical object is that it is easier for the actual creator of the content to keep track of how much they have sold. My first record label still sells an album of mine on iTunes and in the past five years, they have never paid me for those sales.