# Downloading Movies - Availability Question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downloading-movies-availability-question/493794>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 21, 2009, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downloading-movies-availability-question/493794 "2009-04-21T00:32:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downloading-movies-availability-question/493794/1 "2009-04-21T00:32:15Z")

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With TiVo you can download movies to rent from a number of vendors, including Netflix, Amazon and soon, Blockbuster. It’s a great system in general. One thing I noticed though, is that not all movies that are available for rent in the brick & mortar stores are available online. One specific example is _The Pursuit of Happyness_. It’s available to buy and download from Amazon, but not to rent. There are many other examples. Any idea why?

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**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/downloading-movies-availability-question/493794/2 "2009-04-21T00:42:08Z")

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Presumably, making a video available for downloading requires different or amended licensing agreements, in addition to the agreements in place for hard copy rentals.

After all, a streaming download dramatically changes the number of people who have access to a movie, and the studios and copyright holders presumably want their cut of that increased audience.