I noticed an oddly big two-page ad in Rolling Stone for the DVD release of 21, the Kevin Spacey movie from earlier this year. (Metacritic rating: 48, ouch.) The copy of the ad, in big letters, advertises this:

2-Disc DVD includes a bonus digital copy of the film. Unlock it in just minutes and play it on your computer or PSP!

Now, is that really a powerful sales pitch? Who wants to buy something and “unlock” it? Who wants to buy something and then unlock it in a process that takes (”just”) “minutes”? And wait, the movie’s on a disc, right? Can’t I already play it on my computer like any other DVD?

Hmmm; I guess it means that in addition to just watching the disc on my computer, I can save it as a digital copy on my computer to watch when I want. But wait—isn’t that what all that “DRM” stuff is about? I can’t just save it to my computer. That’s, like, a federal crime!

Or something.

Wait, that must be what the second disc is for!

So, let me get this straight. The company has a video file (i.e., a movie) it wants me to buy in physical form, on a disc. But it doesn’t want me to save it to my computer, so it spends money developing and implementing a digital rights management system I don’t want, which it attaches to the video file before it sells it to me on that disc.

Then, even though it completely contradicts the thinking that went into selling me the disc, it then comes up with a scheme that will allow me to save it to my computer, but only by spending more money to put that on a separate disc, and charging me more for that, too.

Now, I’m tempted to say, can I just buy the second disc and not the first one? But I assume that the second one doesn’t work as a normal DVD.  So now, instead of selling me one simple product that might do what a normal, sentient person might want, it is selling me a complex, two-part product that does contradictory things, and on top of that takes out crazy ads featuring jargon that just confuses potential customers further.

And this is all before I get the thing home, allowing me to watch all the FBI warnings, in multiple languages, of course, in peace.