why the hell can’t I watch with subtitles in the same language as the film itself? Holy fuck.
Probably because the subtitles have their own copyright separate from the film itself and Amazon likely doesn’t have the license to the English subtitles outside of the USA.
The copyright system is the biggest problem here. It simply isn’t fit for purpose in the digital age, unless that purpose was to benefit a handful of legacy mega corps while harming independent content creators and stifling culture across the globe.
derin@lemmy.beru.co 8 months ago
Had no idea subtitles could be copyrighted separate from the film/media they’re subtitling (but, it does make sense when you think about it).
I agree with you completely: the current US copyright system is a joke that serves little purpose (in today’s media scape).
GeekyNerdyNerd@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
I wish it was just the US copyright system that’s the problem, some nations have worse copyright laws. In France for example architecture can have copyright, and renovations have a separate copyright from the original architecture… The lights on the Eiffel Tower have a separate copyright from the Eiffel Tower itself, which is currently in the public domain. So while it’s completely fine to take a photo of the Tower during the day at night you need to have permission from the copyright holder, and they have taken action against people who have taken photos of the Tower at night.
Then there are some nations where there isn’t even a public domain and stuff never loses their copyright.
Many of these worse laws have been driven by US and EU trade policies and Trade Agreements mandating draconian copyright and intellectual property laws.
Copyright laws are just a nightmare writ large.