It’s somehow appropriate that the first true test in online movie downloads
comes from a company synonymous to the Internet — AOL Time Warner . Time Warner, with its vast movie and music holdings, was
infused with “new media” savvy when it merged with America Online last year
(if not the profits each expected).
Officials at one of the company’s subsidiaries, Warner Bros., announced
Tuesday it would put first-run movies on CinemaNow for public
download. The licensing deal, the details of which were unannounced,
signals a test to determine whether legitimate multimedia downloads are
possible in a peer-to-peer (P2P) networking world.
The movies cost $3.99 to download, and must be viewed within 24
hours. After 24 hours, the file is inaccessible. It’s a solution designed
only for broadband, given the time limit; a person would be lucky to
download a 700 MB movie within 24 hours and digital subscriber line service
(DSL) itself would take more than two hours.
To date, the movies available at CinemaNow’s site could only be charitably
be described as “B” movies, with such titles as “Backyard Fight Clubs, Vol.
1,” “The Chosen One,” starring Carmen Electra and “Spirits,” starring Eric
Estrada. They’re low-risk titles in the event anti-piracy technology is
cracked by hackers and disseminated worldwide.
Warner Bros. has raised the stakes, adding two blockbuster hits Tuesday,
“Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone” and “Mars Attacks!” to the CinemaNow
download queue.
Bruce Eisen, CinemaNow executive vice president, is anxious to see how the
titles fare on his site and how it plays out on the Internet.
“Making major studio content available to download in a secure and legal
manner marks a tremendous leap forward for online distribution,” he
said. “This is an important step to begin assessing both the demand and
revenue platforms from this emerging business.”
It’s a bold step for AOL/TW, given the popularity of P2P networking and the
danger of relying on anti-piracy technology to protect the movie files
files. It’s a safe bet that a security breach in the technology will
result in the studio yanking its premium movies from download sites
immediately, to prevent the distribution of bootleg copies.
But it’s arguably the biggest effort by the entertainment industry to find
a legal alternative to file sharing. In the music industry, the Recording
Industry Association of America (RIAA) is more concerned with shutting down
P2P networks, chastising
computer makers for selling CD burners and threatening
its customers than find a working model.
According to CNN, the contract between Warner Bros. and CinemaNow
will run until the end of the year, with the possibility of an extension.
Ironically enough, Microsoft’s Windows 2000 OS and SQL Server are the
backbone of PatchBay, CinemaNow’s distribution technology. The operating
system is widely considered an unsecure platform, with the company
releasing several critical
security patches to the software in recent times.
