VidAngel is the latest in a string of companies based out of Utah that are trying to offer "family friendly" viewing of mature content. They do it by automatically muting and fast forwarding past content that the user indicates they aren't interested in.
It's a pretty cool technology, and has a lot of demand out here in the family-values centered Utah culture that is averse to even mild vulgarity. However, they made the mistake of pairing this feature with the following business model:
Rather than obtaining a license to stream the films from the studios, they purchase DVDs, upload them to their server, and then "sell" the rights to each DVD to users for $20 a piece. Once you're done watching, you have the option to "sell" your DVD back to VidAngel for $19. This lets you stream new release DVDs online for $1 a viewing, and circumvents legal licensing.
VidAngel would have you believe the film studios are shutting them down because the studios hate the censorship that is happening, meanwhile ignoring that they are blatantly streaming performances of copyrighted material without license.
Now may be a great time for somebody to create a family-friendly streaming startup, sans illegal licensing, because it looks like VidAngel just left an open spot.
It's a pretty cool technology, and has a lot of demand out here in the family-values centered Utah culture that is averse to even mild vulgarity. However, they made the mistake of pairing this feature with the following business model:
Rather than obtaining a license to stream the films from the studios, they purchase DVDs, upload them to their server, and then "sell" the rights to each DVD to users for $20 a piece. Once you're done watching, you have the option to "sell" your DVD back to VidAngel for $19. This lets you stream new release DVDs online for $1 a viewing, and circumvents legal licensing.
VidAngel would have you believe the film studios are shutting them down because the studios hate the censorship that is happening, meanwhile ignoring that they are blatantly streaming performances of copyrighted material without license.
Now may be a great time for somebody to create a family-friendly streaming startup, sans illegal licensing, because it looks like VidAngel just left an open spot.