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Bollywood New Releases Available via Video-On-Demand
af_robot writes "There's an announcement of a secure, DivX video-on-demand service for first-run movies, but only for Bollywood movies. 'Each new Bollywood film is released on the public Internet a day before or on the same day of its theatrical release, through piracy on multiple illegal movie download web sites,' said Al Mason, CEO of Cinema on Web. 'Our partnership with DivXNetworks represents the future of entertainment on the Internet. Soon virtually all new major Bollywood and Hollywood movies, including entertainment will be distributed digitally with secure VOD solutions like the one created by DivXNetworks, simultaneously defeating piracy and generating additional revenue for film studios and producers.'"
Where have I heard that before?
This is really a wonderful idea. If only our friends at the MPAA could do the same... ...
I store my recipes online (the way nature intended)
Video on Demand over IP is what will hopefully end the cable monopoly and if it actually gains acceptance with consumers eventually end conent producers monopolies as well. One can hope... (somehow always thought that stuff like this will be taken up in developing countries without as strong corp's as out here in the west. More power to India eh :))
So can a recording device. Whether they like it or not, the pirates are always going to have a way to circumvent the anti-piracy schemes. I think the industries would be better off focusing on quality that can't be duplicated by a DVcammed AVI or movie screen. There are always going to be jackasses who will prefer to not pay and watch a shitty copy of a movie as opposed to paying to see the real shitty version of the same movie. If the movie was really something worth seeing then maybe people would actually pay.
Profit.
The Bollywood studios have an opportunity to embrace the technology so feared by their Western cousins. Their production costs tend to be much lower, their business model more fluid. If they get this right, they could ride the bandwidth wave into the next decade, paying less for distribution than the MPAA pay for toilet tissue. Let's hope they can provide a much-needed example
*This is a speed-bump only, but I would imagine that people who have paid for content are less likely to distribute it further than those who have not.
And, just like then, they are failing because of innovative new content delivery systems like this. Yes, some people will always steal movies because it's free. Most people -- say, those who haven't written their own BitTorrent client in the past year -- will move to a system like this, where for a small fee (less than the $20 required for two at the theatres or a purchased DVD), they can view the movie they want, and don't have to wait three days until they get it downloaded, only to find out that they got the cut-down version released in Shanghai, shot by some kid with a camcorder in his hoodie and subtitled by Altavista's babelfish.
People will happily pay for convenience; they will not, however, pay exorbitant fees for convenience. Bollywood is acknowledging that, and is hitting pirates back by competing with them. No one currently competes with pirates, which is part of why they're so successful. Now, their "z3r0-d4y \/1dZ" are getting pwn3d by Bollywood's -1-day vids. It's official: video pirates are going to be Bollywood's bitches, and it's going to hurt piracy to get screwed by that big, singing Indian cock.
End piracy? No. You're just as delusional as the *AA if you think there's a magic bullet to end piracy. A positive step towards ending it? Fuck yes.
Another one bites the dust
Whereas American films consist of:
85% explosions and car chases
10% sex
5% product placement
It can be hard to find reliable sources for pirated material. If it's easy to find, it's usually going to get shut down. Downloading of P2P, you don't always know if a file is complete and free of corruption. It's hard to tell if you're downloading what you mean to be downloading. Even if it is, you don't know what kind of quality you're getting. All told, it's sort of messy and annoying and time-consuming process. And it's a messy, annoying, time-consuming process that might get you in legal trouble.
If someone can make a simple, easy, painless process, and they charge a nominal fee, some people who might otherwise have pirated may be willing to pay the price to save themselves the headache. For example, I know people who have pirated far less audio since the iTMS opened because they found shopping on iTMS to be an easier and more pleasant (and less frightening) experience than Kazaa, and therefore worth the $1/song.
Not that it "defeats" piracy, but it's stopping *some* of the piracy from happening.