James Delahunty
11 Sep 2007 8:09
A new download service in Sweden claims to offer probably the most consumer-friendly movie download service on the Internet. Headweb uses P2P technology to sell movie downloads without Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection. The movie downloads will be fully compatible with regular DVD players (when burned to a DVD disc) and maintains the same video and audio quality you will get from retail DVDs.
Furthermore, Headweb builds on other movie download services by working on more platforms than Windows, even apparently supporting Linux. For now, the company is working on offering full DVD downloads, but will expand to other formats in the near future. Since the service does not use DRM, it is not limited to a proprietary format such as Windows Media.
Since the service will be expected to protect copyright somehow, it uses watermarking technology that will make it possible to identify a movie being shared illegally and link it to the users' account. This watermarking won't be visible and won't cause any problems for the user, unless the download is spread through file sharing networks. The company believes that watermarking is an excellent alternative to DRM for the consumer.
To encourage users to share the movies they download to more users (help with distribution), Headweb will offer "credits" which can be later used as payment in the store. While its not fully Live yet, Headweb claimed in July that around 500 titles have been brought to the service. Set for launch in Autumn, Headweb has already made its way into a report received by the Swedish Justice Department on the development of legal solutions for downloading music and film over the Internet.
For more information: http://www.headweb.com/