I’ve just had an email from Amazon.com advertising a new (?) service, Amazon Unbox, which offers videos for download.

Included in the list are all sorts of goodies, including the current season of all three CSI franchises, for $1.99 an episode.  That’s almost worth it, no?

In addition to all the expected US shows, they also have a peculiar mix of BBC shows – Keeping up Appearances, the Francis Urquhart series To Play the King and House of Cards, and Coupling.

But is it that good?  A scathing review on BoingBoing says not: you have to use Amazon’s software which you agree might be able to spy on you, and play commercials at you whether you want it or not, and even though you will have forked out your hard earned dollars to get access to the videos, you won’t actually own them.  Oh, and it’s not available to customers not resident in the the United States.

Delve a little deeper through reviews, and you’d be hard pressed to find a positive one at all.  All point to high costs (more for the movie downloads than the TV programmes) restrictive licences, spyware viewers and so on.

Pah.