Hulu is a fantastic service, offering Web television streams of some of the best shows currently on US television. It also has some great classic movies available on it.
Another reason Hulu is rated so highly, and has won so many admirers is the opportunity it offers for embedding, something which ABC still won’t offer even after a much needed update.
However, put the two things together and you run in to a problem, namely that a movie which has been embedded may at some point in the future disappear, and not be available any more.
Common Problem
This has been a problem with streaming video on the Web since as long as I can remember, with YouTube videos particularly suffering from the issue, but now it’s even hitting old movies.
NewTeeVee discovered the problem after noting an embedded Hulu video of 80s classic The Breakfast Club had suddenly disappeared from an early post about the site.
They contacted Hulu, whose spokesman said:
“[The movie] expired on our site due to rights issues for the content.”
Great Movies Now Dead
Other movies thought to be affected already include Breaking Away, The Blues Brothers, and Conan the Barbarian and there are sure to be many more as the months go by.
Not that any of this particularly bothers me of course because until Hulu start to cater for more than just American citizens, or those with knowledge with IP manipulation then I’m not able to watch anything on the service anyway.
Theatrical Versions
In other Hulu news, it does at least seem like the movies which are available on the site are more often than not the theatrical versions rather than the heavily watered down TV edits.
This is brilliant news for fans of films such as The Big Lebowski which is one of the most sweary films ever made, but which without it becomes a bit of a nothing film. This is of course assuming you are over 18, as the site now forces you to log in to watch these kind of films.
