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The Movie Studios' Next Step in Online Movie Delivery
Con Zymaris writes "Here's another piece on the how the movie studios are trying to co-opt the movie delivery mechanisms of the 'counter-culture' set, but instill major restrictions such as IP-address range verification to ensure country of origin, and maximum 24-hour-play lifetime for each downloaded movie."
When I buy a movie on DVD at Blockbuster for $19.99 - I own it outright. I can set up a theatre and show it for profit. I did purchase it afterall. It's funny how Hollywood spends tens of millions per film when they can just wait 6 months and just buy it on DVD.
...let's just hope their latest scheme is as successful as Divx was ;-).
If you could somehow convince them to pay maybe $10 for a large popcorn & coke then you could still make a tidy profit.... and movies would be free .... oh hang on..
# Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher and Windows 98, 2000, or higher preferred.
'higher preferred'...That means Linux right?
"maximum 24-hour-play lifetime for each downloaded movie"
Considering how long a DVD-quality movie will take to download (without going into bandwidth caps or more draconian ISP measures), that will leave me exactly 37 seconds in which to watch the movie before it erases itself.
I'm puzzled as to why they think they need to enforce regional zones with this practice. It made sense like 10 years ago. Movies are gauged in the USA before sent out to other countries. Sometimes they're edited differently. Then there's translation into other languages, etc. I understand all that.
These days it's getting harder and harder to justify the segregation. It's easier and easier to launch a movie around the world. For example, I went to Brazil a week after Spiderman was released in the USA. I watched that movie, in Brazil, with Portuguese subtitles only a week after the launch.
Now, I can understand the desire to prevent people from watching the movie on-line so that they can go see it in the theater first. But why is that such a priority anymore? Seems like they still make money either way. In some respects, they could make even more money. There are movies I want to see. I'd be happy to watch them if I had the tape, but I'm not so interested in making it to a theater to watch them. I'm sure there are lots of people that feel that way.
If their concern is over theater attendence, why not make the experience more appealing? Headphones would be nice so you can't hear the occasional ringing of a cell phone. Bigger screen? Better quality film? I dunno.
In any case, I don't mean to ramble. I have a question: What is the big screaming deal about regional lockouts for movies? Is there an issue I didn't raise? It's just puzzling to me that they feel they need to prevent somebody from Australia from watching a movie in the USA. What if I'm vacationing there?
"Derp de derp."
To most people? "Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....."
What is music when you despise all sound?
"Here's another piece on the how the movie studios are trying to co-opt the movie delivery mechanisms of the 'counter-culture' set"
And another name for the counter-culture is the US military?