Blockbuster turns to the net to survive

As Blockbuster Inc. continues to slug it out with rival Netflix Inc., it’s staking its claims to differentiation and its future on a bid to be a multi-channel retailer and not just a DVD rental company. And in repositioning to a multi-platform strategy, the Internet and e-commerce figure to play a big role.

A recent overhaul to Blockbuster.com sets the stage for multi-channel offerings, CEO Jim Keyes is telling analysts this spring. For example, Keyes says that customers will be able to purchase movie downloads from Blockbuster.com by the end of the second quarter. The company also plans to experiment with digital downloads at kiosks in stores.

Blockbuster’s $6.6 million acquisition last year of Movielink LLC, which has an inventory of thousands of movies and TV shows, will facilitate the company’s ability to provide digital content to a variety of formats, including personal computers, portable devices, and, eventually, home TV screens.

Blockbuster also is using a marketing deal with Yahoo to generate more sales online and in stores, and it has announced plans to partner with Paramount Pictures and MTV Networks to offer exclusive digital content. Read more about the Blockbuster Yahoo deal.

The company expects to spend some $130 million this year on capital projects including $40 million on information technology and web infrastructure upgrades.

“As new entertainment technologies emerge, consumer options multiply,” Keyes notes. “All of these initiatives underscore our determination to position Blockbuster as the only provider of media content across all platforms—in-store, by mail and by digital download.”

Xbox Live HD movie downloads

Rumours are abound that Virgin Media and Microsoft Xbox Live high definition movie downloads should take between 15 minutes and half an hour to download by the end of the year on some broadband services.

A spokesman for Virgin Media has informed us that the company’s 50MB broadband service will be made available to over nine millions homes by the end of 2008 which is over 70 per cent of Virgin Media’s entire network.

Xbox Live subscribers can download five top blockbuster movies from 100 MS points, which equates to around 85p.

Most of the movies currently available on Xbox Live can be viewed in both standard and high-definition formats.

Illegal downloads in Japan will be punished

Companies in Japan plan to cut off the Internet connection of anyone who illegally downloads files in one of the world's toughest measures against online piracy.

Faced with mounting complaints from the music, movie and video-game industries, four associations representing Japan's Internet service providers have agreed to take drastic action, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.

The newspaper, quoting unnamed sources, said service providers would send e-mails to people who repeatedly made illegal copies and terminate their connections if they did not stop.

The Internet companies will set up a panel next month involving groups representing copyright holders to draft the new guidelines, the report said.

Company and government officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the report Saturday. The actions would be among the strictest in fighting online piracy.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy late last year outlined similar measures to disconnect Internet users who flagrantly violated copyright laws. But for the most part, illegal downloading is being addressed through litigation against individuals.

The music industry won a first-of-a-kind victory in a US court in October when a single mother in Minnesota was ordered to pay more than 220,000 dollars for sharing 24 songs online. The Yomiuri Shimbun estimated that 1.75 million people in Japan use file-sharing software, mostly to swap illegal copies.

One Internet service provider considered two years ago a plan to disconnect people who swap illegal files but dropped the plan after the government said it may violate the right to privacy, the Yomiuri said.

The best-known Japanese file-sharing software is called Winny, which allows users to swap games, movies and music online. It was developed by Isamu Kaneko, a young research assistant at the prestigious University of Tokyo who has become an Internet icon. But in 2006 he was fined 1.5 million yen (15,000 dollars), although he was spared jail.

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The Consumer's Dilemma: Cinema vs. Movie Downloads

In January this year, a book called The Pirate's Dilemma was published, written by Matt Mason. In it, Mason argues that piracy should be regarded as another kind of business model, one that exposes the inefficiencies in the existing market and acts as a catalyst for progress and innovation.

If pirates are prospering, he argues, it is usually because they have responded to changing consumer demands and are offering them services and conveniences that the original copyright holders are not, or will not. If, then, copyright holders want to take back their share of the market, they need to offer the same services and better; they need to give consumers good reason not to turn to piracy. The movie industry, of course, is constantly crying foul of the pirates - so what can it do to protect DVD sales and box-office receipts? What does it have to offer that an illegal movie download doesn't?

Arguably, the movie industry's greatest weapon against the pirate's free movie downloads is the cinema going experience itself - so let's examine the relative merits of going to the cinema versus downloading:

Advantages of going to the cinema

• It's an event. Executing a few mouse-clicks is never going to seem as special as picking something you really want to see and making the effort to go out and see it. Furthermore, spending money to do so has the psychological effect of making it seem more special - if it wasn't special, why would you have spent money on it?
  


• Exclusivity. That might be overstating it, but still if you're seeing something at a cinema, you're one of the first people to see it, and to see it as it was intended to be seen.
  


• Escapism. Sitting in the dark with surround-sound is a world away from that office chair in front of your computer screen; particularly if you work at that computer, too. And when you emerge from the cinema to find that day has turned into night, it really feels like you're returning from somewhere else; any amount of time could have passed; it could even be tomorrow.
  


• The social element. There is something so different about watching a movie in the company of others, even if you don't know them - it's a shared experience. When you're one of a hundred or more people all laughing at the same joke you feel part of something, that you're not alone. In fact, your response is generally heightened by the presence of other people; scary becomes scarier, funny becomes funnier. As for those discussions with friends on the way home, aren't they sometimes more interesting than the movie itself?
  


• State-of-the-art technology. Who has a computer system or home-cinema set-up capable of replicating the full cinema experience? And just say that you do, what resolution is your download? Put it on a screen bigger than the average computer monitor and chances are the picture will leave much to be desired. Assuming you're even techie enough to know how to make it show on anything other than your monitor…
  


• Stalled downloads. They're the equivalent of queuing for an age outside Screen 1, only to find that once you've been told you can go in, no matter how hard you try, the bloody door won't open. Unlike downloading 99% of a film only for it to irretrievably stall, that just never happens. You don't find yourself waiting outside for an utterly unknowable and indeterminate amount of time, either.
  


• You can't download popcorn. Seriously, you just can't.

Advantages of downloading

• Convenience. You don't have to leave the house. You don't have to queue for tickets. You can watch your film whenever you like. Sometimes, you don't even have to wait until a film's been released in your own country.
  


• Choice. That interesting art-house flick that just came out on limited release, won't be coming anywhere near Stafford, say, so how else are you going to see it? And never mind the current releases, you've got practically the whole history of cinema to choose from online.
  


• Cost. At least £5 per ticket, plus the cost of getting to the cinema, and maybe some snacks and drinks. Or, free. No contest, is it?
  


• No waiting. To the consternation of everyone else, films still tend to be released first in America, usually some while before they reach anywhere else. Evidently, some Americans think this is unfair too, judging by the number of new releases available to download even before they've left US cinemas.
  


• An unrestricted view. At home, no-one ludicrously tall, wearing a hat, or with unfeasible hair is ever likely to sit right in front of your monitor (unless you have a very odd cat). Neither will there be any backrest jogglers. Or arm-rest hogs. Or talkers. In fact, there doesn't have to be anyone in the room more likely to annoy you than yourself.
  


• No ads or trailers. Of course, some people like the trailers, but for many it might be considered an advantage.
  


• Try before you buy. Still prefer the cinema experience, but fed up of throwing good money after bad movies? Check one out as a download first, and if it's any good go and see it in its full glory.
  


• The Tom Cruise consideration. (Or insert own source of cinematic irritation). Download for free, and rest easy in the knowledge that you're not financially complicit in the torture of innocent moviegoers.

Looking at that list, it's pretty apparent that while watching pirated downloads in many ways fails to top a visit to the cinema, movie downloads do have their own advantages. It's probably for this reason that the movie industry has started, all too slowly and restrictively, to embrace the technology. Or at least reluctantly hold its arms out with a slightly worried expression on its face.

But if it just had faith in the public's apparently unshakeable love of cinema-going (box office receipts certainly don't appear to have been hit by piracy), perhaps the industry could truly embrace innovations such as simultaneous releases across all territories, Long Tail retailing of its back catalogue and niche products, ad-supported free downloads and streaming, fast and affordable paid-for downloads, releasing the first half hour of movies as tasters for the undecided… well, there are just all sorts of revenue streams open to any studio that dares to be adventurous.

As for downloads versus cinema: there's no reason consumers shouldn't embrace both; once the move industry decides to.

Apple TV (or Vudu, or Xbox Live) vs movies by mail

In this digital age where we download movies more often that we go to the cinema, a question that keeps popping up is which of the new TV set-top boxes is right for you? Well, if you're already a Netflix or Blockbuster subscriber, maybe it's not a question of which box you want, but whether you really need one. Here's how TV set-top boxes stack up to old-school DVD-by-mail services.

Delivery
Here's the most tempting reason to snap up a TV set-top box—instant gratification. With services like Apple TV, the Xbox Video Marketplace, Vudu, and Amazon Unbox via TiVo, you'll typically be able to start watching your movie within minutes—if not seconds—of hitting the "Rent Now" button, while Vudu tees up its movies instantly, provided you've got a decent broadband connection.

By-mail DVDs, as I'm sure you're aware, require a bit more patience. If you live near a distribution center, you can typically count on getting the next movie in your queue within a day after the service receives the last disc you sent back. Those in rural areas may have to wait for days longer. And while Blockbuster offers in-store trade-ins, let's face it—you can't ready argue with "right now." Winner: Set-top box

Note: Netflix offers about 7,000 "watch instantly" titles, but you can only watch them on a PC—not on your TV.

Selection
Set-top boxes might have the edge in terms of delivery, but online services like Netflix and Blockbuster blow away their digital competitors in the selection department. Apple TV and the Xbox Video Marketplace, for example, each offer fewer than 500 movies for rent, while Vudu and Amazon Unbox fare better with several thousand each. Netflix, on the other hand, has a staggering 90,000-plus DVDs in its library—pretty much everything, in other words.
Winner: Movies by mail

Video quality
While most of the set-top box services say their standard definition movies look just as good as DVD, the truth is that downloaded SD movies typically look softer and blockier than their DVD counterparts—indeed, over-the-Net HD movies may look only a little better than DVD quality. Why? Because video files are heavily compressed for faster downloads, and that means video quality suffers.

Of course, I've seen plenty of poorly mastered DVDs, as well, and if you're talking about a drama like, say, "The Hours," then a standard-def download will probably suit you just fine. But if you want to see "Transformers" in all its HD glory, you can't beat the physical HD DVD (or eventually, Blu-ray) version. Winner: Movies by mail

Sound quality
Full 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtracks are somewhat hit-and-miss when it comes to downloadable movies. For example, the HD version of "Transformers" on Apple TV has a 5.1 soundtrack, but not so for 2000's action-fest "X-Men." Meanwhile, most of the SD movies on set-top boxes are relegated to matrixed, two-channel Dolby Surround only.

On disc, however, if a given movie was released with a Dolby Digital and/or DTS surround soundtrack (and most movies made after 1994 were), you'll most like get it on DVD, Blu-ray and/or HD DVD. And if you're into new surround formats like Dolby Surround EX or DTS-HD Master Audio, disc is the only way to go. Winner: Movies by mail

Extra features
Set-top box movies may arrive instantly, but if you want extra features, you'll be pretty much out of luck. A few of the online services are gearing up for basic extras such as, say, commentary tracks, but for the most part, chapter stops are the most you'll get. Cinephiles who want all the deleted scenes, storyboards, and "making of" documentaries will be better off with discs. Winner: Movies by mail

Prices
Let's start with the boxes themselves: Apple TV goes for $229 (40GB) or $329 (160GB), while the 250GB Vudu and the 20GB Xbox 360 go for $299 and $350, respectively. You can get a non-HD TiVo for as little as $99, but you'll also owe $13 a month in service fees. Meanwhile, you can get a decent DVD player for $50 or less, while top-notch upscaling DVD decks go for between $100 and $150.

None of the set-top box services offer subscription plans yet, so you'll have to rent a la carte, and prices are somewhat high: typically $3 for catalog titles, $4 for new releases, and $5 and up for HD movies.

Netflix and Blockbuster, of course, have their various "X number of DVDs at a time" plans, ranging from one at a time for about $9 to about $16-$17 for three at a time. (Blockbuster also has pricier plans that allow for in-store trade-ins.)

For the sake of argument, stacking the $17 three-at-a-times plan against a la carte movie downloads…the $17 subscription equals about four or five movie downloads, depending on your mix of newer and older titles. Rabid by-mail movie watchers, on the other hand, could probably squeeze in, oh...about 20 movies, depending on the reliability of their mail carriers.
Winner: Movies by mail

And the winner is...
As I wrote above, it's hard to argue with set-top boxes when it comes to the instant gratification factor, and hey, they're cool gadgets—I've got both Apple TV and the Xbox 360, and I get a kick out of renting movies on them. And will downloads eventually take over the DVDs-by-mail business? Probably, yeah.

That said, dollar-for-dollar and taking into account selection, overall sound and video quality, plus bonus features. movie-by-mail services—low-tech though they may be—still take the cake. Winner: Movies by mail

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PS3 Movie Download Store coming soon

Having bought my PS3 I did a quick search to find out what they offer in terms of movie downloads. A few days ago it was reported that Sony is very close to launching a Playstation 3 movie download store. No dates were given but it is expected this month.

The Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal have reported that a spring update to the Playstation Network (Online part of the Playstation 3) will include a new design and a movie download store.

According to attendees of the "Destination Playstation" show (a retailer and publisher focused event), Sony showed off parts of the store to the crowd.

No doubt Sony will try to gain a market share from XBOX LIVE Marketplace and the iTunes Movie Store in the movie download business. When the dust settles after the Apple TV blitzkrieg, the few competitors likely to be left standing are those riding into the lounge room on the back of existing hardware.

The Amazon/TiVo deal puts them in a strong position, but the big players to watch are the games consoles which - like the TiVo - have already established a presence in the cut throat digital lounge room. If you've already spent good money on one (or more) of these devices and use their video download service you're far less likely to shell out more money on an Apple TV player. Movie download services not affiliated with existing hardware will be swept aside unless they offer playback via a games console, as several do with the Xbox 360.

Now Sony has indicated the introduction of a movie download service for the PlayStation 3, to match the Xbox 360, the console war has moved into new territory - territory Apple has already marked as its own.

I don't think Sony or Microsoft are stupid enough to make an "Apple TV killer" in the same fashion they keep rolling out "iPod killers" which fail miserably. They should realise their games consoles are the best chance they have stealing a small slice of the pie Apple is preparing to devour. Microsoft is delusional if it's pinned its hopes on Vista-powered media centers making much of an impact. The fact is most people don't want a computer in their lounge room, unless it's disguised as a games console or media player.

The reason why Microsoft and Sony MP3 players fail to kill the iPod is because they put copyright paranoia before usability. Apple is as obsessed with digital rights management as anyone, but the iPod/iTunes combination is idiot proof enough to appeal to the masses. Assuming Apple finds that same balance in the Apple TV, few competitors will survive.

If someone is looking for a killer application in the digital lounge room, they need look no further than YouTube. The ability to take Flash-based videos from services such as YouTube and watch them on your television will grab the public's attention and help take media players mainstream. Considering the legal quagmire YouTube is wading through - and its tumultuous relationship with the movie houses that Apple, Microsoft and Sony rely on for their download services - it will be interesting to see if anyone has the guts to offer YouTube playback via their devices. If the games consoles want to be "Apple TV killers" it may be their only hope

People will be able to download "all kinds of digital content to their PlayStation 3 - not just games but movies, music, HD, standard definition TV," Sony Computer Entertainment Europe chief Phil Harrison told the games website 1UP.

I will keep you posted on Playstation 3 download news as it happens.

Movie downloads threat to Blu-ray

Blu-Ray has won the high-definition format war but internet downloading is looming as the next threat on the horizon. After two years of intense lobbying, fierce competition and widespread consumer confusion, Blu-ray has emerged as the winning high-definition DVD format.

Its rival, HD-DVD, is dead. Toshiba announced it would no longer manufacture HD-DVD players, and would exit the market by the end of March. HD-DVD players and discs are already being pulled from store shelves across Australia, and some consumers who backed the technology are quickly ridding themselves of it on internet auction sites.

So what now for the future of movies? Will sales of Blu-ray players skyrocket? Is the consumer confusion over? Are Blu-ray player owners sitting pretty? Or, as Toshiba predicts, will internet movie downloads usurp the Blu-ray format and climb to the top of the movie ladder?

It's a big call, but media analyst Steve Allen claims it is "inevitable" and will happen within the next five years.

The debate over the future of movies began in 2006 with the start of the high-definition format war. Toshiba released the first HD-DVD players into the market in March and into direct competition with the Sony-backed Blu-ray format.

Both technologies offered significant advantages over regular DVDs, most notably pictures with five times the resolution, making scenes look sharp and faces more detailed.

Both formats also offered better sound, more movie extras and improved in-movie menus, attracting the attention of home cinema buffs.

But there were significant differences between the formats as well. HD-DVDs were free of region coding and the discs were cheaper to produce, while Blu-ray discs had a larger capacity and were more difficult for movie pirates to manufacture.

Ultimately, HD-DVD lost the war when the majority of movie studios backed the Blu-ray format, leaving HD-DVD owners with few movie-buying choices.

But in announcing Toshiba's decision to stop manufacturing HD DVD equipment, Australian general manager Mark Whittard made a bold prediction: the longevity of Blu-ray was limited and would ultimately be overtaken by movie downloads.

"We believe from as early as next year, next-generation DVDs will be leapfrogged by internet movie downloads," he says. "The movie downloading wave is coming a lot sooner than we thought." Mr Whittard says Toshiba will focus on further developing this internet-based movie market rather than supporting the Blu-ray format.

But how far away are we from replacing trips to the video store with clicking and screening our favourite films via the internet? Fusion Strategy media analyst Steve Allen says the market is still in its infancy in Australia, but will soon become part of our everyday lives.

"In five years from now I think it will be a normal part of the market," he says.

"If you make them available at the right speed, quality and price it would be a success and would dramatically cut movie piracy. This, of course, would mean you could play them on a television and that you only had a limited licence (to screen the movie) for X number of days."

Mr Allen says the high rate of illegal movie downloads in Australia demonstrates that internet users understand the technology and are ready to use it – but movie studios and service providers still have to work out the right structure for such a service that would provide convenience while protecting the artists' work.

"It is in the movie houses' interests to find a way of doing this, because that will choke off piracy," he says. "The speed, convenience and quality of movie downloads will outflank the fakes."


Movie downloads in Australia

Australian internet users already have two legal movie download services at their disposal. The largest is BigPond Movies from Telstra, which launched in February 2006.

BigPond Movies also features a DVD rental service that works via post, and Telstra corporate communications manager Craig Middleton says it still has "a much larger audience" and more titles than the download side of the store.

"We have 4000 titles in our online store at the moment and that is a small percentage of what is available in terms of the entire movie catalogue from Hollywood," he says. "We have over 30,000 titles in our DVD store... that's how far we've got to go."

Part of the problem, he says, is working out download rights with the movie studios.

The other problem is the fact that movies must be downloaded to a computer and cannot be burned to DVD or copied to another media and screened on your television. They are automatically deleted from your computer after a specified time period, to prevent the user keeping or copying the film.

While this protects its creators, it also prevents many consumers from watching the film on their preferred screen: the television.

"There are increasingly more and more ways you can wirelessly network it through to a flatscreen or connect your laptop to your flatscreen TV, but we have not reached the super simple method that will find mass adoption," he says.

"We are finding that keen movie watchers will find a way though."

BigPond Movies' main competitor is a company called Reeltime.tv, which counts Sony Home Entertainment as an investor.

Its website has a smaller range of movies to download and rent than BigPond's service, though it also sells movie downloads to own.

These movies cost between $33.95 and $18.95, but once users pay for their preferred movie, they can keep one copy on a PC, one on a portable device and one on a DVD.

However, Mr Allen says both of these services are limited by the available broadband internet speeds in Australia and the download limits of users' internet plans.

Mr Middleton also admits that the quality of these movies is "not quite DVD quality, but very close to it" in order to keep file sizes low.

High-definition movie downloads, he says, would probably only become viable once fibre-to-the-node broadband became available in Australia.

Pay TV provider Foxtel will deliver HD movies later this year, however, via its new HD+ service. The company will "push" eight to 10 high-definition movies to customers' set-top boxes each month, letting users buy access and view the movies as they want.

All of Australia's free-to-air television stations also offer clips from TV shows on the internet, and some offer full episodes online, including free and paid downloads.


The future of Blu-ray

Just because Blu-ray won the format war doesn't mean its supporters will rest on their laurels – or that people who have bought a Blu-ray player can relax.

Makers of Blu-ray players including Sony and Panasonic are preparing to launch more advanced models this year that will include features missing from most current players.

The most notable of these features is internet connectivity, which will let users download extra content such as movie trailers, more movie extras and even simple movie-based games.

Another is a feature called BD-Live that will allow viewers to watch picture-in-picture content. This feature would see a small window appear as the movie played to let an actor explain a scene, for example.

Only Blu-ray fans using the Sony PlayStation 3 have received access to the BD-Live feature so far.

Ironically, both internet connectivity and the picture-in-picture feature were available on HD-DVD players, and waiting for the second generation of Blu-ray players before investing in one could be a smart move.


The future of HD-DVD

Just as Betamax before it, HD-DVD is dead as a format. However, Mr Whittard points out that the high-definition DVD players still have "inherent value". "Viewers can still play their CDs or their DVD library (in a HD-DVD player) and they can upscale their DVDs to near high-definition quality," he says. "In many cases you cannot tell the difference between them."

To upscale or "upconvert" a DVD, the DVD player artificially upgrades the disc's content, which is at a resolution of 480i, to the native resolution of your high-definition TV, be it 720p, 1080i or 1080p. Some DVD players are better at this than others.

Toshiba has also reassured HD-DVD player owners that the company will continue to support and provide service for the equipment for at least the next five years.


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HungryFlix Pushes HD Movies to Apple and iTunes

HungryFlix, the Internet’s first distributor of premium, independent video content specifically formatted for portable devices, is continuing to drive innovation in the movie download space by announcing that content providers can now upload movies of up to 1GB in size. This increased storage capacity will allow for high quality movies to be delivered to Macs, PCs and especially Apple TV.

HungryFlix was the pioneer in providing indie films for portable media players such as the Apple iPod, iPhone and Sony PSP. The web startup is also offering support for the new class of home media servers such as Apple TV and slingmedia’s slingbox. In order to support growing demands for high definition video, HungryFlix has deployed Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), a component of Amazon Web Services.

Amazon S3 provides a web services interface that can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data from anywhere on the web. S3 provides the same highly scalable, reliable, fast, inexpensive data storage infrastructure that Amazon uses to run its own global network of web sites. This infrastructure will provide HungryFlix with greater capacity while reducing costs.

“We are seeing more and more independent productions adopting HD,” says HungryFlix.com CEO Brian Andrews. “In the portable device space, HD hasn’t been a concern due to the obvious issues of small lower resolutions screens and limited storage space. But, when we look at continuing to expand to Apple TV users, where we see great growth is in the ability to deliver HD or near HD quality video. The demand is coming from both the producers and consumers.”

HungryFlix content is delivered as MPEG4 files that look and sound great on PCs, handhelds and now large screen TVs. All files are DRM-free so that users can also view movies on their computer, iPod or any other compatible device, provided that the film was encoded to support each device.

The web startup is drawing video content providers from across a wide range of genres. The site accepts feature films, short films, documentaries, animation, how-to videos, sports video, music video and more. The goal of HungryFlix is to become another means of distribution for the vast amount of incredible indie content being produced today.

“One of our main goals is to help independent filmmakers and video producers get their content out to the world,” continued Andrews.

“When you look at the movie watching experience, especially for feature length films, many people still want to watch movies in the family room. By supporting Apple TV, we can push video from the web down to the home computer and then the last 100 feet to the family room. When we reach the family room we want be able to provide a higher quality experience. Increasing our file sizes will enable providers to deliver much higher quality video than was previously possible.”

From the movie fan’s perspective, HungryFlix’s goal is to give the people what they want - the widest array of compatible video content free from restrictions so that consumers can watch when and where they wish. The site offers paid movie downloads which means users will own the rights to view movies as often as they would like, on as many devices as possible. Membership is free and downloads start at just $0.99.

Article published on Techmedia on 6th March 2008

Criminal Movies. Criminal Records

I'm a criminal. There. I've said it. In fact, I may even be a terrorist. Perhaps that has you intrigued? Does it make you eager to read on? Are you wondering whether I feel remorse? How about whether I can justify my actions? Or would you like me to, for God's sake, just stop asking these annoying and presumptuous questions, and tell us how many people you've killed, already? I haven't killed anyone. Sorry. I haven't injured anyone either. Not even a paper-cut. In this broadband-enabled age, though, terrorism doesn't have to be nearly as hands-on an occupation as it used to be. Thankfully. Because as well as being someone who sits on his increasingly fat arse typing all day, and consequently wouldn't graduate from even the Cornish Liberation Army's boot camp, I'm actually a bit of a pacifist. Yep, I abhor violence. Except, perhaps, against Michael Flatley. There are always acceptable exceptions. And Celine Dion. She really should be stopped before it's too late. But besides them, yep, I'm pacifist. Sorry to let you down.

Still, pacifist or not, I am a terrorist. Quite definitely.

No, really. There's no getting around the fact. I've even committed a terrorist act - Hollywood says so: I downloaded a movie. For free. Just the once; but piracy funds terrorism, remember? I'm the terrorist equivalent of a passive smoker.

Bit of an anticlimax that, wasn't it? But if you're a regular visitor of the multiplex you're probably used to them. Piracy funds terrorism. Hollywood funds mediocrity. Not morally equivalent, but as statements, equally true?

I don't know, but I'd be more inclined to argue with the first one. And argue I shall.

ME: Oi, statement! You're not true.
STATEMENT: Oh yeah?
ME: Well you're not. Not entirely.
STATEMENT: I am! (PAUSE) Are you starting?

Well, that's not getting us very far, and as a pacifist, no, I'm not starting. So let's try another approach: anecdotal evidence. But first a quick critique of the above scene: At first the plot seems slight, but the statement's unnecessary aggression is the key point. The statement is pure overreaction. Still, the dialogue's a bit lame.
Now, on with the anecdotal evidence.

For the time being, let's switch tracks to music piracy and the days of home taping: back in the 80's and early 90's it was killing music, apparently. Not that that seemed very difficult to believe in an era that contained solo records by Phil Collins. Or entirely unwelcome.

It must have been about 1989 or 1990 that I discovered the music section of the library near my secondary school. It was a revelation: suddenly a world of possibilities was right in front of me. Well, musical possibilities; but better a world of musical possibilities than a single oyster, which seems to be the usual alternative. I gathered up as many likely looking cassettes as my meagre pocket money would stretch to, and was soon at home, happily lost in music.

New music. Sounds I hadn't heard before, and would want to hear again. And again. And again. Certainly more often than a month's loan would allow. But how? Thankfully, I had a new ghetto-blaster (as we embarrassingly called the things), with two cassette decks and high-speed dubbing. And a pile of TDK-90s: some blank, some containing music I'd recorded off the radio and no longer wanted. If I wasn't a pirate already (and I guess I was), then I certainly was by the time that month had ended. Not that I knew.

By the end of my teens, I must have had a few hundred copied albums, had probably borrowed half as many again, and I might even have copied the odd copy for someone else. I was also well aware, by that time, that my frequent copyings had not been strictly legal. But the thing was, who had they hurt?

Certainly not TDK, my favourite brand of cassettes, nor Duracell, whose products powered my walkman, nor JVC who'd made it, and the one before that. Not the artists whose albums I couldn't, anyway, have afforded to buy, and who at least got a small lending royalty from the library. Not the ones whose music I liked so much that I had to have the real thing - photos, artwork, lyrics. And definitely not the many artists who, since I have had money of my own, have benefited and will benefit from the music obsession that all that taping helped to nurture - I now have hundreds of CDs, and as for all the gigs I've attended…

Of course, things could have been a bit different.

These days, I would probably have been one of those kids sued by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) for file-sharing. Would I have gone on to pour thousands of pounds into the music industry? No. I doubt it. And I probably wouldn't be listening to music while writing this either. And what does that say about current anti-piracy methods?

To be fair, the music industry does seem to be starting to catch on to the idea of the Long Tail. Slowly. But what of the movie industry?

The movie I downloaded was a film called Ariel, by the Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki. It's not widely available on DVD in England; at least not without paying way over the odds or learning enough Finnish to navigate cheaper stockists. Believe me, I've googled it. In fact, google it and you'll find torrent listings before you'll find an IMDb entry. (These terrorists are getting very brazen, aren't they? Not to mention clever, funding their operations through free downloads and adverts that barely cover their operating costs).

As for the film: thoroughly recommended if you like deadpan laconic gloom. In fact, I told a Finnish friend how much I liked it and now have five more Kaurismäki films - all on DVD, and all actually paid for. So wouldn't you say that my downloading actually made money for the film industry?

Perhaps, genuine piracy does fund terrorism, - I don't know, I'm not an investigative reporter - but not all piracy. In fact, free movie downloads, like home-taping, might be helping keep an industry afloat. A movie download isn't necessarily a lost sale: most of the time it just lets someone see something they never would have done. And where does that lead? To a love of a certain director, a certain actor, sometimes even a writer. To future DVD purchases, future ticket sales, and, if the movie was any good, to internet buzz. Hollywood runs on hype. And what better hype-generator is there than the internet?

Actually, maybe that's what Hollywood's really worried about: if we have advance warning of its expensive turkeys, it'll have to start making better films. And about time too.

Comparing 6 Movie Download Websites

Here's some useful information for all of those considering ditching your Netflix account or the weekly trip to Blockbuster and downloading movies instead. One of the following methods for watching movies might be right up your street:

If you are on a PC you can try any of the services below, which include:

Vizumi Movie Downloads
CinemaNow
Movielink
Guba
Amazon Unbox
iTunes

If you are a Mac user, the choice is easy. Only iTunes will work on your platform.

Note, however, that you’ll be forced to use Internet Explorer to download these movies unless you use iTunes or Amazon Unbox.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a big part of all of these products. Make sure you read the terms and conditions carefully before agreeing. At least for Amazon Unbox, the terms are somewhat draconian. DRM will keep many users away who’d like the ability to burn movies to DVD, transfer to other computers, etc. These users will simply purchase and rip DVDs directly (removing DRM), or use bittorent to acquire movies.

Vizumi are backed by media giants Arts Alliance Media and studios are constantly being signed up as partners from Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox to Paramount and Sony. They offer 100% safe, legal and official movies. Vizumi software is easy to use and becoming a member (for free) allows you to download films to own or to rent, on a pay per view basis. They also offer free downloads every day.

Since branching out from their Usenet product through a deal to sell Waner Bros. movies in June and Sony movies in July, GUBA has mainly been competing on price and referral fees for recommending more users to the site. GUBA also features user-generated and usenet videos for free alongside premium movies users can buy or rent. Usenet movies can be downloaded in iPod and PSP formats as well.

CinemaNow’s most recent claim to fame has been their release of “Too Fast Too Furious” online at the same time as the DVD release, an industry first. They also have a Burn-to-DVD feature that allows you to burn a DVD playable on almost any DVD player for select titles. CinemaNow provides movies from Disney, Fox, Lionsgate, NBC Universal, Sony, and Warner Bros. Like most of the others, CinemaNow requires users to have a Windows PC and use Internet Explorer.

Formed out of a joint venture between major movie studios, Movielink has by far the largest catalog of new release and library titles. Their major partners include MGM, Paramount, Sony, Universal, Warner Brothers, Disney, Sundance Channel, BBC, and National Geographic. While not as consistently low priced as GUBA, if you look closely enough you can find various discounts for military personnel, college students, and mystery rentals.

After its initial launch, Ubox received wide criticism, most notably from BoinBoing about its user-unfriendly license agreements. Unbox has by far the best meta-data on movies and TV shows, incorporating plot summaries, release information, production stills, and consumer ratings. Unbox sells from 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight, Lionsgate, Paramount, Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros.

View video review of Amazon Unbox here:


As expected, iTunes launched their movie download service back in September. It features Disney movies and managed over one million dollars in sales during its first week. iTunes 7 has been criticized for the buggy 7.0 release corrected with 7.0.1, but nothing seems to be stopping the iTunes juggernaut.

View iTunes Movies review here:



Recommendations:
For all you Apple Mac users the choice is easy with iTunes. For PC Windows users, Vizumi and Movielink have the deepest catalogues with Guba having the most competitive pricing.

CinemaNow has an outrageously priced burn-to-DVD product that may be attractive to some users (although simply buying the DVD seems to make a lot more sense).

The options in the UK are somewhat more limited for Movie Downloads with Vizumi the best choice. Alternatively, try Love Film where you can buy a new release for £20, download it and they also send you the DVD.

What they all do seem to have in common is they are all (except Guba) quite expensive for such low quality content. The more people who use these services however, the more chance these prices will be slashed in coming months.

Vizumi has a few HD Downloads and this is where the future is as Blu-Ray has seemingly won the battle over HD, can it win the battle against digital downloads?

How to download legally

Essentially, there are just two options available to you if you want a movie download. You can either download legally or illegally and this obviously depends on which website you download a movie from.

Legal sites will offer the best software designed and tested to work on your computer so you can trust it will not harm your pride and joy.

If you are not sure after reading on their website what exactly they are offering or are confused and unsure then contact them and ask the following:

Question: “Is a movie download from your site legal?”
Question their legality of the service you are signing up to. Simply ask is a movie download from your site legal? You obviously do not want the strong arm of the law coming down on you as a result of an illegal movie download.

Question: “Will I be using peer to peer software?”
Another important question to ask is when you download a movie IS “does it involve using peer to peer software”? Sites such as Kazaa, WinMX, Limewire, TorrentSpy, YouTorrent all use peer to peer software or file sharing.

If the site does use peer to peer then it is more than likely illegal. This type of setup can easily lead you to download movies that are copyrighted and not legal for you to possess without paying a fee.

What you need is a service that provides you with direct links to sites where free authorized downloads can take place and that are perfectly legal.

Question: “Can I copy the movie once downloaded?”
Along with asking about the download method, you will also want to know if you can make a copy of the movie after the download. If the answer is yes, then you should take it as another warning sign that something is not right. Free official downloads are for viewing only and are not set up for saving or caching on your hard drive. A service that offer access to no charge movie downloads knows this and will make it very clear to their customers that this is so. If you get any other kind of answer, you should move on immediately.

Question: “How many movies do you have?”
Sites that claim to give you an unlikely number of choices when it comes to movies, music videos, television shows, and other types of shows should be another sign that it is not legal. While ethical services offer you a wide range of choices, they will not give you access to every film ever made. When you see that kind of incentive it can often indicate conditions that are too good to be true. You should get away from this type of site immediately.

Question: “What is your software compatible with?”
Check the compatibility issues with your ISP, the type of operating system you have, and your connection speed. Genuine providers will have clear answers to these types of questions and will often have a good support team that can help you with more technical issues if needed. Don't just buy into the idea of one service meeting all the needs of every single customer; it just isn't realistic.

A legal service provide of no charge movie downloads will provide you precise answers to the questions highlighted above.

In contrast, free bootleg movie download sites will use smoke and mirrors to sidetrack you so the question is never ever directly answered. When you get that type of response, you should look elsewhere.

Asking these simple questions will make it possible for you to pick a company that provides you access to approved and lawful no charge movie downloads. With a little patience and asking the right questions, you can easily identify a service that really does it all it says.

A good example of a legal and safe site is Vizumi Movie Downloads which offers 100% legal, safe and official movie downloads. Vizumi is backed by media giants Arts Alliance Media (AAM) who is Europe’s leading provider of digital film distribution services owning sites such as LOVEFiLM.

If you would like to find out more about Vizumi, here is a review of their website: