Paying for movies

Continuing the theme of "What does it mean to own content?" ... let's compare some ways of legally paying for a movie, short of actually going to a theater and, um, watching a movie.

If you have an ordinary TV setup you can pay for a movie by:

• Watching it for "free" over the air or on basic cable/satellite service, but dealing with commercial interruptions
• Watching it on a "premium" movie channel and paying for it and whatever else you watch on that channel through a subscription fee
• Watching it on pay per view which, despite the name, generally means paying for the right to view it during a 24-hour period (at least on cable)
  
• Buying a DVD and watching it as much as you want
  

With a DVR and the movie channels' on-demand services, time is not really a factor, except in that different channels offer different movies at different times and pay-per-view is generally more up to date.

If you have an internet connection and suitable equipment, you can pay for a movie by

• Watching it for "free" via a service like Hulu, but dealing with commercial interruptions
• Watching it through a service like Netflix and paying for it and whatever else you watch that way through a subscription fee
• "renting" it from Amazon (or anyone else who does this) for a 24-hour period
• "buying" it from Amazon (or anyone else who does this) and watching it as much as you want (subject to a little fine print)
  

Suspiciously similar, no?