Wednesday, June 4, 2025

Much Greater Risk of Buying Wrong Item with Digital Media

 Today I was searching for the acclaimed documentary No Other Land.  Amazon first said "Currently Unavailable" but I realized that was DVD and looked for other version in the main search results.

I cannot retrace my steps at all (the history was completely expunged by Amazon and Google somehow immediately after my purchase was final) to see page where I made my mistake, but I could have started from a page for a different movie not realizing it was a different movie.  I somehow thought I was on a page for No Other Land, and it only offered to stream or buy, which seemed to make sense.  I chose buy, figuring then I could download it.  It took me to a page warning that I would not be able to view the movie in 4K because of my device (ok, 2k would be fine by me) and there was a "view" and a "download."  I repeated selected the "download" and nothing happened.  So finally I started to view the video through Chrome and all.

Only then I realized that I had ordered the wrong movie, after watching 2 seconds.  But two seconds two late because all digital media sales are final once watched, no matter how little.

I then tried to retrace my steps, but the only history prior to the movie window was the the Amazon search results.  Digital movie purchases show up in a different folder within Purchases and Returns and the only option was to review.

If I had ordered a Blu Ray, as I would have preferred to do, I would have caught this error in 10 different ways before it was too late.

It would show in a purchase screen (not a "viewing" screen).  It would show up in my email to be checked a few hours later.  It would be delivered and I'd see the name on the sealed disc package.  And then I could have returned it.  If somehow I had opened the movie, I might not have been able to return it, but I could sell the disc and recover some amount of the cost, or donate it.

I finally found the film through YouTube which actually linked to the movie on Rumble.  The Rumble version appears to be the genuine article, but only standard definition (480p), or perhaps less, some kind of lowered resolution copy.  It does not appear to come from the producer but from some blogger with 11 followers.

There seemed to be another version in high definition on Youtube.  But if you look carefully at the title, and the description, you see it isn't the movie at all, but a "Review" of it which consists basically of endless junk such as pictures of the DVD package and the producers appearance at Cannes and various logos with various disparaging fades.  Nearly two hours of junk which profits from YouTube royalties which value time watched and how many, so for each person sucked in (especially if they download the film) they could get some royalties for junk, scamming off the original title.  (And in the search results there are many similar other "reviews" just with slightly different titles.)

Here's the actual Title at YouTube from the one I looked at.

No Other Land (2024) Movie ‧ Oscar Winning Documentary | Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra | Review & Facts

Well, obtaining that was not as bad as my mistaken purchase at Amazon anyway, though I hate the fact I subsidized scammers.  Sadly I doubt the producers get any royalties from Rumble, and I guess that's the whole point of being "locked out by Hollywood."

Another version even added "Full" just before the "Movie".



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