Digital Journal — Call it a deal with the devil. Warner Bros. announced it will sell and rent movies and TV shows online using the BitTorrent’s massively popular peer-to-peer technology. The funny thing is: BitTorrent is the same program entertainment companies blame for helping people download illegal copies.
With its announcement, Warner Bros. has become the first Hollywood studio to fully embrace the use of file-sharing applications.
“We’ve always known peer-to-peer technology represents a huge opportunity for us,” said Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros.’ home entertainment group, told the Wall Street Journal. “If we can convert 5 per cent, 10 per cent, 15 per cent of those [illegal peer-to-peer] users to become legitimate users of our product, it can have a significant impact on our industry and Warner Bros.”
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Hollywood studios are looking to harness Internet technologies that can shuttle large files through in a cheap and efficient way. With peer-to-peer, people are essentially allowing Warner and BitTorrent to convert their computers into mini servers to help distribute entertainment to other customers on the network. |
Hollywood studios are looking to harness Internet technologies that can shuttle large files through in a cheap and efficient way. With peer-to-peer, people are essentially allowing Warner and BitTorrent to convert their computers into mini servers to help distribute entertainment to other customers on the network. Using BitTorrent, huge movie files are broken up and downloaded from thousands computers at once. As soon as the dl is complete, the software reassembles the movie into a complete package. The benefit: both bandwidth costs and transmission time are drastically reduced.
Launching this summer, the service will allow users to buy downloads of films and TV shows on the same day they become available for DVD. While pricing terms have yet to be confirmed, BBC reports that the cost of a Warner film on BitTorrent will cost the same as the DVD release. But News.com writes that Warner Bros. TV shows will be available for $1 each.
Currently, BitTorrent users don’t pay to download an unlimited amount of content, although this practice has taken heat from Hollywood and other content providers.
So far, Warner plans to offer films such as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and The Matrix, and TV shows such as Babylon 5 and Dukes of Hazzard. More than 200 films will also be available through 2006, and all content will include heavy-duty security features so they can’t be copied, shared or burned.
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Launching this summer, Warner Bros’ new service through BitTorrent will allow users to buy downloads of films and TV shows on the same day they become available for DVD. |
This deal will only be the tip of the iceberg. Hollywood studios believe movie fans will prefer to pay a reasonable price for a legal downloaded movie rather than risk illegally swapping a computer file that could contain viruses or be a poor quality copy of a film.
But many download-friendly bloggers counter that Warner’s idea will flop. One irate blogger on AlterSlash complained the deal will mean it will take longer to get the film compared to walking down the street to the video store, and there is no incentive to download if it costs the same as a DVD purchase.
Some believe that restricting what users can do with the file will cripple the Warner-BitTorrent deal. As one Engadget post put it: “Illegal file-sharing and podcasting took off because the files are yours to do what you like with.”
And file-sharing also exploded because the content was free. And remains free.
The true challenge for Warner Bros. and BitTorrent is convincing dedicated P2P users that paying for films will benefit them somehow. It worked for Apple and its iTunes service, but downloading movies that cost much more is a totally different playing field. Where are the incentives? Where are the $1 films?
If Hollywood studios want to work with the technology they are known to despise, they’ll have to give people something more than what they already enjoy.
