This is a thing.

Why has the movie industry not designed this yet, to stop all the pirating?

Basically, you have a Steamesque THING.  We’ll call it AwesomeTunnel.  Parts of all the files are stored on a server.  You download movies.  There is an option to load something up for offline viewing, but you have to jump through some kind of hoop if you can’t get online within X days to prove you own it.

For, say, five dollars a month, you get the option to share movies with friends.  As in, watch them together, over the internet.  So you pay five bucks a month for the option to ‘livestream’ for lack of a better term, a movie with your friends, complete with little chat room and possibly a voice chat option.

For another say, two dollars a month, you can ‘lend’ movies.  This means that, because you’ve loaned it out, you cannot view it until your friend returns it.  Just like a physical copy.  But unlike a physical copy, if your asshole friend doesn’t return your damned movie, you can hit a button and yank it back.

You can rent unlimited films/shows for another five or eight dollars a month, allowing you to have a movie for twenty-four hours.  They can even limit the number of people who can ‘rent’ a movie at a time, to encourage people to buy, if they want.  Rentals don’t have special features.

Each movie would cost a certain amount.  So let’s say the Avengers comes out on our magic wonderful movie program.  You can buy the theatrical release version for, say, five bucks (price will go down a month or two after it’s released via AwesomeTunnel).  You can buy the extended version for another five bucks.  You can buy Joss Whedon’s magical voiceover commentary for a dollar.  You can listen to the actors talk over the film for another dollar.  You can download the bloopers reel for another dollar or fifty cents.  Each extra is a dollar or fifty cents.  You can buy ALL THE THINGS for Avengers for a neat package deal of maybe 15 dollars (theatrical release, extended version, all the different commentaries, production art, bloopers, ‘on set with’ etc etc etc).

Television programs, you could buy by episode (maybe two dollars an episode)  or by season/series (at a discounted rate based on the per episode cost).

My friend points out that samples would be awesome, too.  You can watch the first fifteen minutes or half hour of a film for free so that you don’t waste money buying it and find out you hate it or clutter up your rental queue with them.  You can watch the pilot episode and maybe one or two more of a show for free.  The thing is, you can ONLY watch the sample or the pilot one time for free.  You can also, if you decide to buy just one more and then decide you love the show and want to buy the whole season, get a partial credit.

THIS WOULD BE A BETTER OPTION.  Be proactive and make your money back by making the movie experience BETTER if you buy/pay than if you don’t.  That’s the only way you’re going to win.