Digital Video - The Economist

They were unhappy because the film was distributed in UltraViolet, a video format often used by Warner Brothers, a big studio that provided some funding to the movie and agreed to handle the digital distribution. The studio also conveniently owns the third-party firm, Flixster, chosen to handle Veronica Mars downloads. UltraViolet, like most digital video platforms, uses digital rights management - in other words, it encrypts the film so that it can only be unlocked with authorised devices or software.

VHX uses an account-based approach to access rather than DRM wrapping the film, and will only deliver in both streaming and downloadable versions. These films can then be freely copied and played anywhere, which is a nod to a simple truth: all films are available in pirated versions, free from any sort of restrictions, usually almost as soon as they are released. Restricting playback with DRM makes life hard for legitimate customers, while having no effect on the pirates.