In contrast with online media you can be certain that it depends on DRM services. So it is less that it disappeared and more that it is now extremely widespread.
Sure, it is convenient until your software/hardware is no longer supported (same HDCP problems, codecs, DRM schemes), 4k is only available on... , the monthly rent increases, it is now bundled with Amazon Prime Plus Ultra, the company pulls an Adobe in Venezuela, the company gets bought by Comcast, the company goes bankrupt, ... .
For movies you unfortunately don't have much choice, but for games, ebooks and music you can find DRM free stores.
It's the same storey with all products. Of course I'd prefer just buying DRM free games, avoiding single player games that require connecting to services that can be down (looking at you Origin) etc. But the price and the product itself (the game, move, tv-series or whatever) is the deciding factor. There is never going to be enough people choosing services based on technical reaosns and not only content+price.
> There is never going to be enough people choosing services based on technical reaosns and not only content+price.
That sounds needlessly pessimistic. You could have said the same thing about music downloads several years ago, yet here we are (though music streaming admittedly goes in the other direction). People tend to choose based on convenience and music that I can easily take from my pc to put on my phone or wherever is more convenient than DRM stuff.
Convenience is surely why Spotify won over even the free mp3 downloads? Anything that involves user-managed files in any sense will never be convenient to the masses. It’s a concept more dead than vhs. You won’t find many that find moving and organizing files “convenient”.
Sure, it is convenient until your software/hardware is no longer supported (same HDCP problems, codecs, DRM schemes), 4k is only available on... , the monthly rent increases, it is now bundled with Amazon Prime Plus Ultra, the company pulls an Adobe in Venezuela, the company gets bought by Comcast, the company goes bankrupt, ... .
For movies you unfortunately don't have much choice, but for games, ebooks and music you can find DRM free stores.