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Sony is planning a movie download service

3 April 2005 19:39 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 13 comments

Sony wants to create its own sort of "iTunes for Films" by making the most popular 500 Sony movies available for download within the next year. Sony has an impressive movie catalogue of about 2,500 titles including classics like Lawrence of Arabia. Sony is going to use this massive resource to test Internet movie downloaders.

"We want to set business models, pricing models, distribution models like Jobs did for music, but for the film industry," said Michael Arrieta, the senior vice-president of Sony Pictures. Sony also plans to make the films viewable on mobile phones. The movie industry has been slow to provide ways for people to legally download movies on the Internet but the major movie studios are already suing people who are using P2P as their means to download and share movies online. The recording industry is also suing file sharers it alleges to have downloaded and shared copyrighted music illegally but claims there are several different legitimate sites those users (and anybody) can purchase music from legally.

Microsoft warned film makers that they have to adapt to this new demand or else they will face the same experience that the recording industry did over the last few years. Now also with the growth of broadband Internet connections worldwide and a vast selection of P2P based software and networks, movie piracy is growing at a huge rate, in most cases allowing movies to be downloaded in a matter of a few hours. The movie industry is afraid this type of file sharing will damage its $17.5bn annual DVD sales. Sony will go ahead and open their download store for movies, and we will more than likely see many more legal download stores open up shortly afterwards, just like with legal music download stores.

Source:
Independent

Permalink to this article

BiBC presents video download service (3 August 2005)

Sony plans to open virtual games goods marketplace (22 April 2005)

DVD releases on the same day as theatrical releases? (21 April 2005)

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Discuss this article!
venomX05 (Senior Member) 3 April 2005 20:16
It is just me, or do they think they are going to stop people from downloading just because they decide NOW, that they are going to offer movies for download and people will pay for them? [ + quote]
neewbie (Member) 3 April 2005 20:25
What a stupid idea! They would need a very good server heaps and heaps of bandwidth to run it and what format would the movies be in? if you expect people to download a dvd5 over 4 gig movie its gunna take some time and use your usage. what is the point of this? i agree with venomX05 no one would really do it or pay for it just because they have decided that there gunna offer movie download for money.... [ + quote]
diabolos (Senior Member) 4 April 2005 0:26
It would be easy to download Mpeg-4 (Divx, Xvid, H.264) based movies. I'm very intrested in seeing how convienent the service will be. There are several VOD download services avaible already so Sony wouldn't be pioneering anything but I still think that with there re$ource$ that they might be able to do something unique. VOD (yes people do pay for movie downloads and its not that hard to manage): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_on_demand Ced [ + quote]
#afonic (Member) 4 April 2005 4:05
They'll just use the new WindowsMedia video, and DRM techology from Microsoft, unless they team up with Apple or buy (!) RealVideo. I think they'll offer the video to watch in your PC, therefore it will be locked against converting to DVD etc. [ + quote]
neewbie (Member) 4 April 2005 4:15
Well for starters wmv and rm is shit quality AVI-xvid is excellent but paying for shit quality and sounds movies that you can only watch on your computer is a stupid idea.... imo [ + quote]
Mik3h (AfterDawn Addict) 4 April 2005 6:25
What's gonna make people PAY to download movies, when they know they can do it for free? If SONY are gunna host 4gb movies then people are just gonna go download them illegally faster and cheaper.. -Mike [ + quote]
thecraigc (Senior Member) 4 April 2005 6:41
it is so stupid, cos' the time to download and the cost are probibaly going to be insaine. anyway you would never be able to stop people downloading from places like ares, kazaa, edonkey, emule, imesh, dirrect connect, bear share, sharazza and all the other ones. its just a pointless idea, but some idiots will do it!?! !!thecraigc!! Se desiderate la pace, preparisi per la guerra. [ + quote]
thecraigc (Senior Member) 4 April 2005 6:42
it is so stupid, cos' the time to download and the cost are probibaly going to be insaine. anyway you would never be able to stop people downloading from places like ares, kazaa, edonkey, emule, imesh, dirrect connect, bear share, sharazza and all the other ones. its just a pointless idea, but some idiots will do it!?! !!thecraigc!! Se desiderate la pace, preparisi per la guerra. [ + quote]
thecraigc (Senior Member) 4 April 2005 6:42
sorry, i clicked reply twice. !!thecraigc!! Se desiderate la pace, preparisi per la guerra. [ + quote]
Hrdrk20 (Member) 4 April 2005 8:31
There are many people who don't know anything about computers, programs such as Shrink DVD, don't know what DivX is. Many people will pay because they don't have a clue how to do it any other way. I laugh when I see people pay for DVD's they can copy from the local library for free. [ + quote]
daemonzx6 (Senior Member) 4 April 2005 12:54
hah, so do I. they will most likely use the WMV format with of course WMA sound, so all the ignorant public will be able to watch them on their little Windows Media Player. the movies will be bad quality and the sound will only be stereo and, of course, DRM. [ + quote]
kidkhaos1 (Newbie) 4 April 2005 17:38
to be honest i can see myself using this service just i have used others i.e itunes. not because i dont know anything about kazaa, bit torrent and other p2p, its just that there are some song, films that are damn near impossible to download on p2p. [ + quote]
TazmanYo (Newbie) 25 August 2006 11:47
No matter what, most people want digital quality from their dvd's. I have downloaded a movie from a legal site, and as predicted, it was not crisp. It was slightly blurry, which is what you would expect on a typical bandwidth. This is only for people who want quantity instead of quality. Might as well buy a VHS at the nearest pawn shop. [ + quote]