Hi Suzy
Unfair? No, no at all.... that's what you promised to do when you signed up. You're only allowed to play these titles on machines with iTunes loaded that you've authorised on your own home network - the computer you're on, an AppleTV in the lounge room, another laptop. Apple uses iTunes to accomplish this, others, such as QuickFlix, NetFlix and others might use your browser and something like Microsoft Silverlight to achieve the same thing. All deliver protected content - the reason that we have access to downloadable media in the first place. Even DVDs aren't "owned" by you - you don't have the right, in law, to do with it what you want - you are merely "allowed" to play it. You don't own the copyright so you aren't allowed to re-distribute it unless the license you're accepting when you sign states so.
By trying to copy them to disk and giving them to someone else you're technically stealing. This isn't allowed, and so it shouldn't be. You haven't "bought" the movie as such, you've only purchased the right to watch it on your own network of authorised machines. It isn't the same type of license as that you get when you purchase a DVD. Your friend would have seen a dialogue box come up stating that the content had to be "authorised" to play on that computer by the original lessee - you. It would have presented her with a link to follow and she would have done that - and tried to log in to your AppleID not knowing your password.
If you want to give a TV series or movie to someone, all they need is iTunes on their own machine at home. You purchase the TV series or movie as as a "gift" and they then receive an email stating that they have a gift to download. See the image and you can see that feature.
It all works well, you just have to understand the premise I guess!
