Universal to Offer Movies Online
Nearly everything is downloadable these days, and while movies have been available to intrepid pirates for years and years, it appears that studios have finally caught on that the internet is an excellent means of getting their films to consumers. Universal’s chairman and CEO Bob Wright seemed less than enthusiastic (although perhaps the quote is taken a bit out of context) about the new venture, stating that it was “something we [Universal] have to do”.
Before all the hackers and rippers get their hopes up, it should be noted that if the studios feel their hands are forced into opening up their features for online services, that they’re going to do everything in their power to make it as difficult as possible to burn and re-distribute the movies. Since the movies cost so much money to make, their revenue needs to be protected from the dark abyss of the modern internet, where hijackers lurk at every turn and movies will be sold like cheap trinkets at a county fair.
As a tiny aside, perhaps studios would be less worried about recouping their investments if they made less expensive films that had high quality content. Regardless, the ripping community is bound to see whatever safe-guards that are put in place as an irresistible challenge to their skills. If any of the security measures that come in to play last more than a week without being cracked, I’ll be surprised.
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POSTED IN: Film Industry
1 opinion for Universal to Offer Movies Online
Karine
Oct 11, 2005 at 4:47 am
That’s actually a service I’ve been looking forward to for years. I feel like for too long, piracy was almost the only option - not all of us want to build a dvd collection, or have the movies we want to see available for rental at a nearby video store.
That said, if the service starts with the same non-sense of regionalization as the dvd market, my pirate days are far from over.
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