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It's the first working day of 2005 for many folks and NZ seems to be the only
country in the world which has no new IT/Net news stories on its local newswires.
I guess the great Kiwi break isn't dead -- just drowning in even more unseasonable
rain.
The international wires have been humming since Monday and it looks as if the
big news for this year might just be that age-old perennial -- movie piracy.
With the rate of broadband penetration continuing to grow an increasing numbers
of store-bought PCs being equipped with video capture cards, DVD writers and
other devices, the movie industry are aware that they're going to have to gear
up for one hell of a fight this year.
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Unfortunately, just like the music industry before them, the movie industry
seem to be looking at ways of fighting the Net rather than embracing it.
The fact that so many folks are prepared to rip DVDs to less bulky formats
(DivX, VCD, etc) and then send or receive them using the Net is surely a
very clear indication that there's a market of willing customers out there
and a demand that needs to be met.
Why can't the movie studios release their own "less than DVD" resolution
copies of movies that can be downloaded by customers and burnt to disk
(in VCD/SVCD format) for use in the family DVD player?
I guess the answer would be that this would promote the unauthorised exchange
of movie files and most people would simply download illicit copies for free
rather than pay any amount for a legit one.
That maybe true -- but there's another way...
Instead of focusing solely on a new HD DVD standard and strong encryption
to prevent piracy of such disks, why doesn't the movie industry also work
on creating a suitably protected "low bulk" standard/format suitable for
the distribution of movies via broadband.
Using formats such as DivX, quite acceptable (better than VHS) quality
recordings can be made in a way that allows an entire 90-120 minute movie
to be squeezed into less than 800MB of data.
Imagine if the DVD player of the future could simply hook into your
home LAN and utilise your broadband connection to download movies of your
choice...
The choice of titles could be done using onscreen menus via the TV screen, with
the remote providing the control inputs. These movies could be purchased (burnt
to disk) or rented (stored for a limited period of time on the unit's hard-drive).
Personally, I'd be quite happy to save myself a trip down to the video store
(and the hassle of having to return the "new release" disks within 24 hours
and I'd be happy to pay the same amount of money for a lower-res version that
still looked just fine on my crusty old 29" TV set.
The way I see it, the movie industry are mistaking an opportunity for a hurdle.
Ignoring this opportunity will not stop the widespread distribution of movies
in a "low bulk" format via the Net -- it just means they won't see a penny
from it because it'll be called "piracy".
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I should have the forums back up again sometime today.
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