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**SpooRancher** · 04-01-2005, 09:46 AM

jms has spoken out against downloading movies or episodes a number of times on the newsgroups. So far, that article looks like it is only Sony, and apparantly their movies.

Unless something is set up where the royalties are covered for the downloads, I doubt that jms would get onboard. Plus there is the problem that, once downloaded, even if originally downloaded legally, the piracy issue will once again rear it's ugly head as there would be nothing stopping someone from sharing the file once delivered.

I am of somewhat mixed opinion of the whole downloading/copyright infringement issue. There are a number of books that the ONLY way I have been able to track them down was on electronic copy from Kazaa or some such. A significant number of other books I found an electronic copy for something that I also own a hard copy of. I prefer hardcopy vastly over electronic, but, for some things (especially role playing games) an electronic copy backup is nice (as it lets you print out specific pages without breaking the spine of your book, as a copier would run the risk of doing).

Also, with the great number of out of print books, some times the electronic way is the only way to get some books. The same holds true for many movies (especially if you live in a small town). Television episodes for people who don't have the requisite cable channels available fit in the same area.

I would LOVE it if there were some way to have access to older television shows that are not yet out on DVD, books that are not at the book store (my town doesn't even have one) and movies that aren't at the Wal-Mart or Movie Gallery. Online download on demand would be convenient, but, understandably, risky for the copyright holder. Here's hoping that SOMETHING works out in this arena without sending a bunch of people to court.

**Andrew_Swallow** · 04-01-2005, 10:21 AM

There is a big difference between downloading and paid downloading. The Sony one was paid.

Once there is an honest system in existence most people use it - if only to avoid the dangers of getting caught.

Moving movies is not difficult. Adding a front end that asks for say $10 via PayPal before releasing the film is fairly easy.

There are several methods of encrypting movies being discus at the moment. I wonder if Sony and the BBC will be using the same one?

Once a big firm gets a working viewer out and stops annoying the customers other people should be able to use the same interfaces. The newer forms of ADSL are able to distribute picture in real time (or less), making video on demand viable.

I had forgotten the problems about paying residues. The big studios can afford to employ people full time to process residues. Independents will have to use another scheme. Is there an existing royalty system for independent films on TV? Or would the organisations that pay musicians be interested in bidding for the contract?

To pay for a $200,000 movie twenty thousand families need to download it at $10 a go. Or ten thousand groups at $20 a go worldwide. Groups can contain several people. Trailers would probably be free.

Costs include converting to MPEG4 and uploading onto the server. You can probably get twenty 4 GByte films onto an 80 GByte disk. With an experienced operator film to MPEG4 conversion should take less than a day.

**AaronB** · 04-01-2005, 11:25 AM

The question that I have is how user friendly will the DRM be. iirc iTunes Music Store for example has it that you can burn songs in the same order three times and then you need to change the order of the playlist. Also, will Sony come out with a Mac version of the software?

hmmm, maybe this is what Steve Jobs was talking about when he said that Apple and Sony would be collaberating more on projects.

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