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Warner Bros. to Try File Sharing in Germany

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the studios-admitting-p2p-is-here-to-stay dept.

Carl Bialik writes "The Wall Street Journal reports that Warner Bros. plans to sell TV shows and movies online in Germany via P2P. In2Movies, to launch in March, 'will feature movies dubbed into German, including "Batman Begins" and "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," for a fee that Warner says will be similar to the cost of a DVD. It will also offer television shows like "The O.C." and locally made programs and movies. Users, who will have to register for the service, will be able to keep the movie indefinitely. But instead of getting a movie from a central server, pieces of it could come from other people on the network who also bought that movie.' The president of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group says, 'Studios can't just turn their backs and hope "P2P" is going to go away tomorrow.'"

7 of 209 comments (clear)

  1. Incentive for the user? by Fusen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So why would someone use this service against say The Google Video Store, or iTunes. TFA doesn't mention if the files would be cheaper, but they will still be DRM'ed so by using this service you get the movie like you normally would be you also have to sacrifice your upload.
    I don't understand why anyone would want to sue this over the services that are already out.

    1. Re:Incentive for the user? by ehrichweiss · · Score: 5, Insightful
      From TFA: "for a fee that Warner says will be similar to the cost of a DVD"

      It doesn't look like they're planning on passing any of the savings on to the real distributors/consumers, that was my point. And as has been stated repeatedly, if the prices are not going to be reduced I'd rather just buy the DVD and save my bandwidth(upload and download) for things that profit me as an individual. They need to pass on some form of secondary gain here and SIGNIFICANLTY cheaper pricing or free movies in exchange for sharing your bandwidth are the first two that come to mind.

      --
      0x09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
    2. Re:Incentive for the user? by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      did you even read the summary? they will be charging "similar to DVD prices" for something that is of lower quality, lacking the DVD extras and you pay for the bandwidth.

      Yeah, people will jump all over that.

      it simply reinforces the fact that the movie industry is ran by a large number of retarted people that have zero clue about business let alone how to sell a product.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  2. They're still not quite getting it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So, for about the same price as a DVD, you get a DRM locked copy of the file and you get to pay a good chunk of their distribution costs. What a great deal!

  3. Sounds like a good idea by TheRappingShoe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It will be interesting to see what kind of formats will be used, exactly how much they charge, and how much DRM they cram into the thing. If they do charge the same cost for downloading a film as the DVD version then where is the incentive to download? Surely the price should be lower to reflect the savings in materials and distribution costs.

  4. Wow, same price as a DVD? by GrumblyStuff · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...but you get nothing? If there's any sort of limit on how many copies you can make, you'd best hope your computer never dies.

    So let's see.... None of the usual DVD extras? One language? No hard copy? SAME PRICE?

    Wow that's a bunch of ass.

  5. Pay as much as a DVD! ugh? no thanks. by xirtam_work · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Are these companies stupid? Do they think we're stupid? Why ask us to pay the same price, or similar to a store purchased DVD when there's no manufacturing, packaging or physical distribution to pay for? If anything an electronic copy of a movie or song should cost less to the consumer - much less.

    I can understand people paying a similar amount for a 'premium item' like a just aired TV show or something that is similar to pay-per-view like a sports game. But, expecting people to pay full price for something that comes without the same quality of packaging as a movie that can be bought in a store is rediculous.

    And to top it off they're using a Bittorrent style system where their customers are the ones paying for the bandwidth! If I upload your show to another customer for you it comes out of my quota of data from my ISP for the month and costs you nothing! What's in it for me huh?

    These outfits really need to figure out that an electronic product should be *LESS* not that same price or more!

    Don't forget these movies are likely to be compressed to a lower quality than a regular DVD as well.