omfg when did this happen?!?!?! dont see how this is going to work because when they go to the torrent site, they have hte option of buying the file or dl'ing it for free. anyone else see that prob??

This is the most stupid commercial distribution system I have heard of. Yeah, sounds cool at first, but think of a few things:

1. You are buying the content. Who is going to want to waste their bandwidth uploading when they paid already paid for it?

2. Anyone unfamiliar with the way bittorrent works is just going to be a leacher. Most newcomers don't appreciate the fact that the torrent only survives if you have a 1:1 ratio minimum and just remove it from their list.

2. Even if you do upload, there is no incentive to continue doing so, especially if your download is useless to you after 1 day at worst, 30 days at best. Again, it is going to be a very leacher environment.

With regards to sukhvail's comment, they have two options: the torrent host is private, and second, the files will be DRM ridden, meaning you are really buying the licence key to read the file. I guess that is the only thing working in the favour of this method of distribution: people will be unwittingly distributing the file until they realise that they need to pay money once the download is complete... Then they go to the purchase site and buy a key out of frustration.

DRM = instant consumer repelant, at least the smart consumers

....and now that i think about it....

paying for downloads = bleep stupid

LOL, takes me a week to download, cost me $4 and only 24 hours to watch it. I can go to my local video store and rent NEW dvds for $1. Which method will I choose.

George watch your mouth. There's no need for that.

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Considering that alot of people do just rent and return and don't bother to make a copy for themselves I feel like people should be able to watch a movie for around 2 weeks at a minimum, if not a month, before it is unplayable. Why make it 24 hours when you can rent a Blockbuster flick or even netflix (depending on how many you watch a month) and watch it over and over for a week or 2 and return it with no penalty and in Blockbusters case - pay less.

What about special features too? Are we downloading the movie only? I rent DVD's sometimes because of a rich features set or even a 2nd disc...

Here's my suggestion:
$1.99 for the movie. $0.99 for the extras. Watch as many times as you want for 2 weeks. Or sign up for a monthly pass to rent unlimited films (caveat being they are only playable for 3 days).

There's really no sign of Hollywood given up their stubborn DRM stance so we'd be crazy to ask for anything more. But they need to realize that they need to SWEETEN the deal for early adopters to have a reason to try it. Plus, there has to be at least 20-50 seeds per file hosted BY THE STUDIO to start the torrent.