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Legal DVD Burnable Downloads Launched
rogabean writes to tell us that Hollywood studios have taken a large step into the future by launching their new program with CinemaNow which allows users to legally download and burn DVDs. While the current of offerings seems to be just the dregs, studio execs hope to expand the list quickly and offer a new way to find niche or older films that are difficult to locate.
I can't wait!
"Snatching defeat from the mouth of victory on a daily basis."
... the reason they opted for this was supposedly having discovered a way to create a DVD that can be played in a DVD player, but cannot itself be copied. How is that even possible? TFA has no information.
The prices "start" at $9, plus I have to download a few gigabytes and then burn it myself? Plus no storage box or artwork? Thanks, but it'll be faster, cheaper, and result in a better product if I just drive to Wal-mart and buy the same DVD for $7.
Have you read my blog lately?
they mean an old jimmy cagney noir piece?
or ooh! ooh! a hitchcock horror movie?!
maybe a john ford western!
this is so exciting!!!
scans article...
"Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Barbershop and Scent of a Woman"
vomit, puke... choke, cough... vomit, hurl
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Why pay $9 for movies that are in the $5 bin at Wal-Mart already? Scent of a F-ing Woman????? Al Pachino owes me $7 for seeing that in the theater.
I'd rather see the service go after recent 1st run movies at the same time the $1-$2 theaters get them. I'd pay $9 to download and burn a featureless DVD of a recent release(think X-Men 3) and still consider buying the commercial DVD is I liked the film enough. It would give the studios a revenue stream on a flick while they were working on the DVD title.
STFU & GBTW
...it will likely be dead on arrival.
drink beer, and let the water run the mill
What with these things costing $9-$15 for old titles, they'll be almost as dear as buying the real thing from stores, or online. But, when you've had enough, you certainly won't be able to raise any beer money selling them on, and ebay will probably think you're selling a dodgy copy!
How are the tubes going to give me my internets when people are filling them with dvds!?
Coupled with the CinemaNow agreement, a deal with Apple would cement the internet as a viable distribution vehicle.
Can someone define "viable" as it is used here?
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
101 titles, but I don't know how much they cost because... Well that's great. Guess we can rule out smart windows users and linux users. Apparently
Nine bucks for old movies that can be found in the bargain bins for $5 - $10 already is not really going to turn a lot of heads. When they start pushing out current releases with this model, then we'll see if the studios are serious about doing something like this.
To me, it doesn't really look like a serious business strategy, so much as a pre-emptive strike by the studios against eventually being held over a barrel by Apple Computer the way the record labels are right now. They want the infrastructure for something like this in place early in the game, so they don't give up their power to make the rules.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
what?
right, because downloading and burning in itself - that wonderful tingly feeling it gives you - is the reason why piracy is so rampant...
Jesus, what do these guys eat for breakfast?
It is currently out of print is is selling for hundreds for an unopened copy (see wikipedia for more info). Mystery Science Theater 3000: the movie would be prefect for fan who wish to buy the movie after the studio feels its not worth stamping CDs.
Let's see:
Cost compared to buying it from the store: Same
Rights compared to buying it from the store: Less (Assuming DRM still works 5 minutes after they release it)
So, let me get this straight...I'm going to waste hours and dollars downloading a movie that (I assume) can only be ripped to DVD, which will be less functional than same dvd bought from the store, though just as pricey.
Tempting...If they include a free beating or tax audit, it'll be impossible to resist.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
"The first part of the burning process is Converting the file into a format that can be burned. This can take anywhere from 2-5 hours and happens as you download the file."
5 hrs during/after the download... think I'll pass. O, that and I'm a Linux user : P
noobcake or noobmuffin? It is the same price...
... at least now my monthly bandwidth statistics will look a little more legit to my ISP.
"Sir, you are using a crap ton of bandwidth, and we think it might be due to illegal downloading."
Nope, I use cinemanow.
because if so, I for one would happily support and bow down to our new legal burnable dvd download masters!
"Snatching defeat from the mouth of victory on a daily basis."
Just looking around their site, you can't do anything of substance (even find out how much the movies are) without IE 6.0 (or greater - yippie). Well, that isn't working too well for me. Be gentle, though - they seem excited about their new and shiny business model.
- Tash
Yippie - hybrids!
"The prices "start" at $9, plus I have to download a few gigabytes and then burn it myself? Plus no storage box or artwork? Thanks, but it'll be faster, cheaper, and result in a better product if I just drive to Wal-mart and buy the same DVD for $7."
Oh NOW the store-bought DVDs are worth it. I hope that sudden 180 didn't cause you to wreck.
With an astounding "fuck that" from the masses what other Rootkit/Malware will be dropped onto your PC without your knowledge, consent and/or permission?
Shit for brains.
I bought and watched all movies the I got/downloaded, fuck them if they provided substandard media; i paid to own a copy to watch and i will not keep paying. What the fuck do they think movies and music is, AIDS medicine you can gouge on till death?
Asshats.
If Hollywood actually wants this to catch on, they're going to need to set some realistic prices.
If, on the other hand, this is only there for Hollywood to point to and say, "look, there is an alternative to illegal movie downloads," well then, well done! You've gone and created something that no one but the courts will actually take seriously!
/dev/random
They said something in TFS about niche films; if Gayniggers from Outer Space isn't a niche film, then what is? Au revoir, karma.
Viable:
1)Close enough to current distribution and profit models to not cause MPAA concern.
2)Alternately, likely to result in complete failure while still provide an "I told you it wouldn't work" excuse.
So if one company can do this, you can imagine that Apple wanting to sell movies through ITMS would want to do the same. How can they argue against it now?
This really seems to take the wind out of the rumors of online rentals through ITMS. Who wants to deal with all the hassle of online movie rentals and watching them on a computer when you can burn a real DVD that you can use in any number of ways?
I wonder if it would also include some extras, in other words be a true DVD image and not just a movie feed...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Until the telcos deliver on their 6+ year old promise that I was supposed to have a 45+M/bit sync fiber connection by now; I think I'll pass and just drive to the store and buy the movie instead (it would be quicker). It would be nice however to be able to download some old movies like 'Quatermas and The Pit'. But if Hollywood still insists on crippling it with DRM/CSS I'll just go somewhere else.
"I bow to no man" - Riddick
allofDVD.com
It'll happen soon, I'll betcha.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
I'd only be interested in this service if they would offer movies that I couldn't get on DVD otherwise, such as content in widescreen that I used to be able to see in pan-and-scan on HBO like (in no particular order) Looker, TAG: The Assassination Game, Night of the Comet, I Come in Peace (preferably over the its retitled version Dark Angel), Electric Dreams, Deadly Friend, Moontrap (better than Virus), Terminal Entry, and The Squeeze. Only a couple of those have I gotten off TV, and they still require rematteing (assuming that they are open matte instead of pan & scan).
And that's just the movies. I doubt we'll ever see such TV series as TV 101 or Whiz Kids released either.
The "dregs" I want to see made downloadable are the ones that the studios don't feel would be profitable enough to sell on prepressed DVDs. Studios, put your whole catalog online and see what people are still interested in. Perhaps it may even convince you that there's a market for stinkers (Terminal Entry is pretty bad).
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Just briefly looking at the list, it seems to include Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Syriana, the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie...
If your theory is different from practice, then your theory is wrong.
I think this thing is just like all the other "downloadable movie"-sites. It's purposefully broken (in this case overpriced) in order to drive customers off, either to the traditional go-buy-a-disc-at-walmart or go-download-some-warez. Because most customers want convenience, they'll of course scoff at this offering and continue to download Xvids from the local bittorrent-tracker.
Hence, MPAA et al can claim that "our potential customers WANT to pirate movies, we tried but it didn't work, woe be us!" and the retarded justice system will let them continue their crusade against evolution, since the industry has "proven" that downloadable movies "don't work".
It was the same with the other sites that offered "downloadable" movies. The movies were heavily tied down with DRM (which prevented them from being burned to DVD or moved to another computer), customers were expected to provide the bandwidth for the other customers, and the movies were horribly expensive - usually twice the price of a dvd in the bargain bin, but without the flexibility of a DVD, without the extras, and with lesser audio/video quality.
*adjusts tinfoil-hat*
I enjoy large posteriors and I cannot prevaricate.
The way I see this possibly working is if they sold really new releases - say movies while movies were still in the theater and there was no DVD yet available. Then some people might put up with the bother and buy a movie online to watch at home instead of the theater.
Then if you really, really like it you might even buy the actual DVD with extras later.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Where does this tidbit come from? Not the article. Nor has the behavior of studio execs in the past suggested any hurry to get their valuable IP onto the Net.
I survived the Dick Cheney Presidency 7 to 9 AM 7-21-07
So... anyone want to explain to me how iTunes Movies being a subscription based service makes sense in light of this?
--Not to be worried, Pitr fix.
You can use any DVD +-R discs in your own burner.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Most of the movies are avaliable in the bargin bin at WalMart. About the only thing I saw that I would consider was Firefly and even that would be cheaper to drive out and just buy the whole season on factory DVDs. I was really curious to see if anything here was even worth buying but I can't bring myself to buy any of these for $9 a pop.
Pretty much looks like the stuff you might be able to burn to a standard DVD is stuff you might not even care to watch once.
fluxDVDs use a Microsoft Windows Media compatible DRM scheme that allows easy integration into exiting server- and client side MS DRM environments. Burned DVD-Rs use an updateable, sophisticated DMCA copy protection.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
There are three ways I know of making a normal audio CD impossible to pirate/play on a computer:
- Turning off autorun
- Ripping on anything that isn't a Windows OS
- Suing the shit out of Sony for abusing our computers
While the rootkit method will have the least false positives, it will also cause the most damage, and it's the easiest to circumvent.I suspect that any method which allows you to burn your own DVD, even if it'll let us use single-layer media, is going to use one of the above retarded methods for attempting to prevent copy protection. They could try using Blu-Ray, except that Blu-Ray media isn't cheap enough yet.
The real question is, will the downloads be full DVD quality, and if not, will they be DRM'd before they get to the DVD? In other words, could I download these using their software (undoubtably they'll require software), then copy them over the network and play them on my Linux box?
If not, then this will likely be used to say that people will always pirate, no matter how cheap/convenient they make it. They could take a hint from the pirates, though. You can't make it much more convenient than an un-DRM'd BitTorrent download, and it's certainly cheaper to publish that way.
Here's my conditions for using this service or a service like it:
I'd like high def with lots of extras, but that's not necessary. The above list is, though. Miss even one of those and I'll just rent them and rip them, the way I always do.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
I mean Flux DVD, not my friend the fluxbox desktop enviornment. It has nothing to do with MS DRM. I should be prevented from posting without previewing.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Just came over from CinemaNow and it does not play well with firefox.
And Hollywood moves one small step by only starting to embrace technologies like Bit Torrent. Good.
I see dead pixels!
WTF is DCMA Copy protection? That says nothing about what the copy protection it is, or how breakable it is. Basically it says that it's against the law to break it, but that describes pretty much any method of copy protection currently available.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
So I'd have to purchase a(nother) computer system, with an OS I don't want or need, just in order to contact them?
Wouldn't you love some time in a dark room with the ****stain who came up with that idea?
-- Brad Felmey
VHS is more expensive then DVD (especially in europe where you need a seperate VHS version for every combo of sub/dub for every language) to produce, ship and stock so DVD is more expensive. Downloading saves production, shipping and stocking, so it is more expensive. Give it 2 or 3 more generations and you will have to pay the entire movie production costs if you want to see the trailer.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
It's finally legal to burn porn?
Just went to the site and had a look at their list of free movies. That's 5 minutes of my life I will never get back. Page after page of Z-list crapola and not one (NOT ONE !!!111) movie I have ever heard of. It must have taken a lot of work to come up with a list of movies this bad.
"Bad beyond all infinte possible dimensions of badness"
Enough suck to pull small planets out of orbit.
None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
"You must use Internet Explorer Version 6 or higher on a PC running Windows 2000 or later in order to use the CinemaNow service."
Guess that means no download to DVD service for me... =\
Microsoft Sucks, F/OSS Rocks. I get mod points now right?
From my mandriva machine it won't even tell me the prices.. Damn you ie!
That only appears on the ending credits through season 4. It doesn't cover the movie, half a season of Joel, or any of Mike.
A company struggles with thousands of evil Hollywood companies, lawyers and finally there is a way to get "content" instead of plastic and make DHL/FedEx rich.
Perhaps if it successes , we (people overseas) can burn their own content and get rid of stupid importers. Importers will have to import media they can sell, not easily downloadable as HD-DVD and Blu Ray.
Look at response they get. Wow. Plain wow.
I don't write highly intellectual essays here but I still don't want my nick around these comments.
Be a little bit positive people... Really! Enough is enough. CNET comments aren't so different too.
It doesn't take to be genius of coding to figure anything can be copied. Discuss what changes this introduces, not some "I am 133t, I can copy" crap.
I don't think I'll touch it with a 10 foot pole until someone rev-engineers it.
I'm interested to know what it does besides burn DVDs
They're using their grammar skills there.
Actually, you do get to download the DVD artwork- cover, label, and tray inlay in PDF format. And to those who've speculated about the lack of bonus features, you get them, too. It's right there on the front page. But this is Slashdot, where we don't RTFA.
Sono koro, bokura wa, sore ga sekai no shinjitsu da to shinjite ita.
"but that describes pretty much any method of copy protection currently available."
And so, you exactly got it!
"DMCA Copy Protection" is the technical means of telling you "You can't copy that, you bad boy!" and then, if you still dare copy it, the whole lot of 500 pound gorillas from RIAA and Walt Disney Corp will crush you and then put you in jails.
That's "DMCA Copy Protection", you insensitive clod!
From the CinemaNow Webpage: "To watch the movie or burn it to DVD, you will need CinemaNow's easy-to-use DVD Burner software"
So it is not just an easy distributable ISO that you download. I can see how they can prevent making more than one copy from the image file since you must use their own burning software but I fail to see what would stop a person from making a copy of the newly burned DVD. I also would be curious as to how they unforce the one copy limit, the only way that makes sense to me is to force the user to be online and do some type of validating with their servers, otherwise just making a copy of the file before burning it would be able to get around the one copy limit since they would have to edit the file in some way to recognize it as "used".
Either way, if the resulting disc is playable in a standalone DVD player then there is no way to prevent the movie from being lifted off the disc. This model might look good to a suit who doesn't know any better because they think, "This is great, even if the image file is shared over the internet it can only be used once!", and while that is true they will probably overlook the fact that people can still copy and create images of the burned disc just as easily as before.
Hey, there is only one Return and it's not of the King, it's of the Jedi.
And uses this service to offer:
1.Movies and TV not currently proffitable to offer on DVD (because not enough people would buy it to cover the production, marketing and distribution)
and 2.Movies and TV available on DVD but has such a limited distribution because no stores want to carry it.
"Who said either are "worth it"? People often pay more than something is worth."
Says who? You? Why don't we cut out the middleman and I start making your "worth" decisions for you. Let's start with your taste in clothes.
Use a standard protocol -- BitTorrent or HTTP. Please don't use FTP.
Why not FTP? I personally prefer it over HTTP for downloading files, rather than being confined to how the web server and browser want to handle the directory listing and file transfer. (Don't get me started on web servers that transfer .bz2 or even .gz in text mode...)
Cavemen discover fire!
A bad analogy is like a leaky screwdriver.
You can't actually download the movies directly - you have to download some proprietary program for a specific, proprietary OS/platform and presumable *it* downloads the movies.
Even if I would remotely consider using Windows for anything, I wouldnt download executable.
Hint to people - 'downloading' something that would be considered data (which includes movies and music) should consist of downloading (gasp!) *data* (eg http://yoursite/whatever/something.mpg or something.iso or something.mp3) - NOT downloading exectuable code locked to one platform (eg something.exe)
Yes, as said: ...
1) put a Win2K in a VMWare VM
2) D/L the crap & install it
3) take a snapshot of the VM's filesystem
4) D/L the film and save it to another partition
5) watch it (or burn it)
6) reboot the VM & goto step 5
7) Profit!!!!11!1
They insert structural errors, like CRC errors, in the DVD to keep you. Any good ripper, like the Tsunami MPEG editor can rip it. It's legal too since the disc is not encrypted (i.e. no CSS).
500 pound gorillas from RIAA
I am the representative for the A500LBG (association of 500 pound gorillas), and plan on pressing charges for libel if you do not immediately rescind your claim. To suggest that 500 pound gorillas would ever associate with the RIAA is unfounded defamation.
Stupidity is like nuclear power, it can be used for good or evil. And you don't want to get any on you.
This is just another foolish idea that the desperate community of download entrepreneurs are trying to get past the cement-heads of the MPAA. All they can get currently are cinema dregs. No one is going to want pay to download junk when they can download good quality DIVx titles from the unlicensed distributors for free. And the entrepreneurs need big profitable download numbers to get the studios to offer popular big name titles. This is another 'zombie' company; already dead and doesn't know it yet.
So why would the studios want paid downloads? They can distribute DVDs inexpensively and profitably to the video outlets that have proliferated widely in the US and developed world. And they generally get the cost of the film product covered through the initial theatre release (where 90% of the box office goes to the studio for the first few weeks of release and 50% of the viewers chose to see the new movie). What does the studio have to gain from paid downloads? Pratically nothing.
Paid downloads are good for films that don't get wide DVD or theatre release. Brilliant little foreign films, etc... But if noone knows about them, then there is no demand. No demand means no paid downloads. Eight dollars isn't cheap and three hours of download time is a high opportunity cost to pay for a bozo film. Three hours spend downloading a turkey is three hours spent that wasn't downloading a good film. It's so much easier just to go to the DVD store in the local supermarket and pick up a six month old title for much less cost in dollars and download time.
Nor could you convince foreign directors to release their films in the USA or other countries as downloads. These guys are very traditional and want their films to be seen in theaters; they don't even like DVDs. The more that the download entrepeneurs are able to pressure them to license their 'vanity' films for download, the less likelyhood that they will be pressed into DVDs. They will be limited to their local national market and whatever government subsidies that they can hussle from their local cultural ministers. Which means boring films, which means fewer people taking a chance on downloading them regardless of the reviews in specialized film magazines.
All in all this is a dumb idea. The only thing that will work is the only thing that is currently working. Which is people crafting their favorite new films into DIVx format 'illegally' and posting them for download on the P2P sites. Eventually the MPAA will have to come to terms with the P2P community, on the terms of the P2P community, and accept whatever residual fees that the P2P community considers it appropriate for the studios to have. In the same manner that the RIAA came to a partial truce with the P2P community with iTunes.
It will take a long time because these guys are exceptionally thick in the head department. Which means we have to wait for a lot of dumb zombie companies like this one to fail before any real progress gets made.
The original DivX i.e. those rental DVDs that automatically rotted in a few days. What a top notch idea that one was. (URL:http://www.fightdivx.com/divxfaq.htm)
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
Sounds a lot like Divix... Remember that half-assed idead by, umm, Best Buy (i think)? You buy the DVD for like $5 and it only plays 3 or 4 times or something. How did that work out again....
There is probably an expectation that downloads will innevitably replace physical DVD purchases at some point in the future. To sell downloads at price points lower than physical media means decreasing the value of your product over time.
Movielink and Sonic Solutions also announced an alliance that would allow downloaded movies to be burned to DVD. Theirs also will use a DRM technology that claims to allow the DVDs to play in "standard DVD players," but will be a "protected format" so you can't copy them.
Given that pressed DVDs can't achieve this, and that CSS isn't possible on burned DVDs, I find this difficult to believe.
Xesdeeni
Ha.. that show was kind of dumb/cool/lame/awesome... for a 3d cartoon that is.... but hey they've got it and it's free... if you are on windows with IE that is...
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
Of course the prices are too high. Of course the offerings are limited to films that studios are willing to risk (i.e. ones that they think are not popular enough to have much value).
They're not testing demand here, they're testing their infrastructure. Does the download process work? Will the disks play in most DVD players? How quickly/thoroughly will the DRM be cracked?
Once they have a working platform, then they can drop prices and/or release the popular/valuable films any time they want.
The movie studios do NOT want to be beholden to Apple. They do NOT want flat pricing. And they do NOT want the films to get loose from their DRM easily. Today's news is nothing more than a beta test with dummy data.
"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." --The American President (20.1.2009)
Just wondered about the captchas or whatever that people keep mentioning. I've seen lots of them, but never on Slasdot.
Where are they?
Are you a grammar Nazi? I'm trying to improve my English; please correct my errors!
As long as "The Brotherhood of the Bell" available I'll buy at least one. Far better than "The Skulls" which was a later movie of similar (almsot pirated :) ) concept. So as long as they can sell one movie to everyone they have a viable market...
- Tjp
I am in wallow with my inner money grubbing capitalistic pig. ... Oink!
I tend to visit /. "fresh", before logging in. When you hit reply, the page generated contains an Anti-Script word to verify it is a real person. If you log in first, you don't see them.
As a general rule, I tell my browser not to save passwords.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine