BitTorrent Legit Service Launches

The launch of the BitTorrent Entertainment Network came out today; there's the AP write-up, which is decent enough but the interview with Bram about it is more interesting. Tangentially, the the education of lawmakers on video DRM is an interesting countweight to all this.

Comments

What I want in digital downloads

[davidwr]

For "purchased" items I want a perpetual-use, use-anywhere, one-use-at-a-time, as-many-copies-as-I-need, no-DRM, honor-system "like a book" license, "enforced" only by a customized copy that can be traced back to me if it gets spread around the world. I expect to pay no more than I would at a video store or mail-order for a DVD.

For rented items, I'm willing to accept time- and device-restrictions. If I rent a DVD from NetFlix, I don't expect to play it on anything but a DVD player. I expect to pay no more than I would at a video store or DVD-rental-by-mail service for a similar product for a similar rental period.

The advantages of a well-done digital rental service are that when ordering, I can

• Specify the destination device, e.g. "Windows Media Player" or some other device that may or may not exist yet
  
• Specify the rental time limit to begin watching, e.g. 30 days after payment
  
• Specify the rental time limit to finish watching, e.g. 24 hours after first playback or 30 days after payment
  
• Extend my rental without downloading the whole thing all over again
  
• Specify if I'm willing to watch commercials before, after or during the media and if those commercials will be in the form of breaks, border ads, or product-placement ads. If I want to pay more for a "no commercials" option I can do that too. Of course I can also provide marketing information in exchange for further discounts, coupons for other products, etc.