Monday, May 23, 2011

Android Market's new movie rental service blocked from rooted devices

Biggest GoogleFail ever

We can't make this up people.  According to Google, who gets to make the rules since it's their service, rooted devices are not supported by the Android Markets new movie rental service "due to requirements related to copyright protection".  You'll even see a specific error message when you attempt to try -- "Failed to fetch license for [movie title] (error 49)". 

So now people who root their phones, whether to get rid of the crap "open" that's forced down their throats, or to have a current version of Android, are punished and lumped in with folks who steal movies.  Nice move, Google.  That makes me want to buy more of your products and use more of your services, so I can be treated like a criminal just because I'm smart enough to get rid of CityID, or want a safe version of Android on my phone.  And of course, I'd much rather steal movies streamed with a poor bitrate at a low resolution to my phone than use Google to search out any of the thousands of places where I could steal them using my computer. Facepalm.

Of course, the Android community will find a way around this.  I already have some ideas, and I'm sure others will, too.  But we shouldn't have to.  And once we do, I'll download one (and only one) movie from the Market for the satisfaction of defeating this stupid move by Google, then be sure to never use the service again.  Redbox doesn't care if I want to run a custom ROM on my phone, so they'll get my $4.00.

Source: Android Market supportThanks, Joshua!


Abbie Cornish Krista Allen Hayden Panettiere Jules Asner Whitney Able

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