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Does Legal Online Video Content Delivery Exist?
RingDev asks: "I'm working on a system integration project for my CIS capstone. One of the systems we are integrating is a Windows MCE PVR. One of the topics that came up implementing a movie on demand or rental system using an existing online content provider. But the question we have run into is, are there any? Is the only option for online video content (TV shows, movies) P2P and BT clients? Is there no company out there that handles licensing and provides DRM'd content?"
There's nothing wrong with using BitTorrent for distributing legal content. DRM was deliberately left out of the spec, because it would've made it horribly complicated and because it's much better to put the DRM in the payload being transferred rather than try to work it into the protocol.
movielink allows you to 'rent' movies for anywhere from .$99 to $5. quality is decent though certainly not DVD. speed is good. selection is sparse.
http://www.movielink.com/
you can also get "starz on demand" through realplayer for approx $13 a month. you're limited to the current line up of STARZ movies--and they often suck. but it's better than paying $70 for premium cable. quality is ok, but still not DVD.
http://starz.real.com/
but i dont know if those are the kind of things the poster wants. his question was amorphous at best.
just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand!
What it seems like the submitter wants, is an existing online video rental company with a bunch of licensed videos who he can partner with to rent to people who use his PVR / set-top box. In much the same way that there are companies that handle B2B licensing and delivery of music, are there established companies that handle licensing and delivery of movies to hardware vendors? Who handles the in-house entertainment systems for motels and hotels?
As a side note, there are legal videos online. Check the internet archives feature film division for quite a few classics, including The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, Night of the Living Dead, The Charlie Chaplin Film Festival, and period genre shlock like sex madness and hemp for victory. That's not really what he's asking for, but it's worth mentioning for the other people who may be reading. Anywhere that has Santa Claus Conquers the Martians deserves a nod.
The ______ Agenda
OurMedia (at www.ourmedia.org), still in Alpha, provides storage space for video and film makers to upload their digital contents that use, mostly, Creative Commons rights model.
Seems like you're interested in providing existing Hollywood TV and movie products. The question I throw it back at you is: why bother? Anyone who has watched one episode too many of those bad or mediocre TV shows and movies churned out by the industrial machine, at one time or another, must have thought that the home movies made by his cousin, as amateurish as they are, still beat those glossy images produced by a group of people who are in it for the money.
Speaking of money, you should know by now that TV and film producers hang on to their rights as if giving them away were akin to giving their manhood away. The notion that someone out there is thinking, "Jeez, I can't watch enough of those shows on WB network, and darn it, where can I pay to download them online?" is, you know, counterintuitive.
Sun and Fun