Beauty and the DRM

Yesterday was the last day of my winter English camp for beginners and I showed Beauty and the Beast, which I'd argue is one of Disney's best films of the last twenty years. Unfortunately, I'd downloaded (without realizing it) the "Special" edition that has an extra five minutes or so and a horrible song, "Human Again." It's sandwiched between two other songs and makes the film bloated in that area.

But otherwise it holds up as a great film, and the sophisticated animation of the ballroom scene is still impressive almost twenty years later.

So I'm kind of amazed that you can't buy a new retail copy through Amazon. I think Disney repackages their material every five years or so for anniversary editions with new crap bonus glitter packaging, but forcing consumers to turn to ebay or whatever for a copy at any point seems like Disney throwing away money. But what do I care. I just wish I could have found a download with Korean subtitles.

Did you know the guy who wrote the songs for Beauty and the Beast also did the ones for Little Shop of Horrors? But he's dead now.

I also showed this to my students and they liked it (the week's theme was "fairy tales"):




Started listening to Cory Doctorow's "Content" - an audiobook on copyright, DRM, etc. It's free, great, check it out.