24 hour expiration

[Ashley Aitken]

I think the original rationale (as stupid as it may be) is that it's  
supposed to be "one viewing" (e.g. in a hotel room).  Sure they go on  
about the fact that you can watch the movie as many times as you want  
in the 24 hours (probably hard to do it more than 20 times though) but  
I think that is the rationale.

You can start watching it one evening or one day and if you don't  
happen to finish it (too tired, interruption) then you can watch it  
the next morning etc.  You aren't supposed to have some friends around  
one night and watch it and then some other friends around the next  
night and watch it again with them.

Of course, 24 hours is a lot better than one continuous viewing only  
(if you quit playing it you're finished or when you get to the end  
that's the end).  However, I think they've left room for increasing  
the expiration time.  A lot easier to put up with a few complaints now  
than trying to decrease the expiration time in the future.

All that said, as someone else mentioned, Apple's choice was probably  
dictated by the movie studios and there specification was probably  
based on what has gone before with on-demand movies via cable etc.

Cheers,
Ashley.