For all the sympathy content producers have tried to elicit (Downloading pirated films is stealing!) it's still remarkable to see how little they respect the consumer’s time, money and intelligence.

Get this: We no longer own the pay-per-view movies we pay for and record on our digital video recorders.

Late last month, DirecTV quietly changed the policy for its PPV movies – we found out from a message transmitted to our DVR in the middle of the night. We were told that as of April 15, DirecTV says film studios require that pay-per-view movies recorded to digital video players only remain playable for 24 hours. After that … poof! They’re gone.

Now, we suppose there is an old-school logic in play here: The studios realized that if people can create a DVR/HD version of, say, “Michael Clayton” from PPV for $4, they’re sure as hell not going to run out and pay $34.99 for a Blu-ray copy at Best Buy. So they'd better limit access to protect their bigger sale.

But you have to roll your eyes that content producers still don’t see the digital terrain for what it is.

The $4 pay-per-view audience is different than the $35 Blu-ray audience. The $4 customer wants that movie right then and probably doesn't care so much for quality. While The Blu-ray viewer is willing to wait and expects a higher quality experience.

In fact, PPV-to-DVR films are just one part of an increasingly chaotic, overlapping, confusing open bazaar for content. Every film is available in a $15 standard DVD version, a $35 Blu-ray version, a $4 PPV version, as well as fixed-time broadcast, cable and theatrical releases. And that ignores the true alchemist of digital content: the Web. With iTunes now leading the way for computer distribution of first-line movies and television and startups like Vudu offering a set top alternative for similar content, Web delivery is fast becoming the benchmark for all content releases.

And that’s exactly where the market is going: It's only a matter of time before the industry has single day and date release for all content across all media. Even more bizarre, expect most of that stuff to be free of all digital rights management. Already iTunes and Wal-Mart are selling rights-free versions of many songs. The movie studios must certainly follow.

In this free for all word, the studios are fooling themselves if they think they're making PPV more profitable by essentially creating an artificial rental period. What they're really doing is making PPV less attractive. And PPV has always been the laggard in the content industry, and we're certain that they will sell fewer PPV movies as a result of this 24-hour policy, and not more. Which means they'll make less money, not more.

Smart, guys … very smart.

Jonathan Blum is the author of Blumsday, a daily technology blog and e-newsletter.