A step in the right direction
August 29th, 2009 at 10:24 am by David FarrarPat Pilcher reports in the Herald:
In what could be a landmark move, US website www.filmfresh.com have joined the fray and are delivering over 600 downloadable big title Hollywood movies. …
Film Fresh’s movie titles are not totally hobbled with digital rights management (DRM) which means they won’t become unwatchable a week after you’ve downloaded them and can be burnt to a DVD or copied to a USB stick.
Perhaps most important of all, delivering a solid range of blockbuster Hollywood movies that are relatively un-crippled by DRM provides a legitimate alternative to copyright infringing downloads.
Absolutely. The biggest blow against illegal downloading is making material available for legal purchase immediately, without DRM, in all countries, for a reasonable price.
This goes some of the way there.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that Fresh Films is only available to folks living in the US and there’s no sign of it arriving here any time soon.
Stupid. That means the only way Kiwis wanting to view the film at home can do so, is to get it from a torrent site.
The other catch for those that can download Fresh Film titles is the price which ranges from US$10 to US$13.
Whilst that isn’t too steep (especially considering that the movie hasn’t been lobotomised by DRM), it is a little steep in that it is comparable to US budget DVD pricing and you don’t get the special features and other goodies usually bundled with a DVD.
I think this is significantly over-priced. In NZ you can go to the movies and see a film for around $10 on a weekday. Now bearing in mind you watching it at home means the studio does not have to pay for the theatre, the theatre staff, the cost of getting a film reel to them etc etc and my expectation is that a movie should be NZ$5 at most to really get people buying them.
Likewise I think $1 is around the sensible rate for a TV show.
Bad news aside, the move by Fresh Films backers (Paramount, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, and Sony Pictures) to allow semi un-crippled legit movie downloads could signal a softening in the hard-line stance of the major studios, potentially opening the floodgates for other similar local services.
As I said, a step in the right direction.
Related posts:
- Human Rights Film Festival
- Movie downloads
- Parole changes a step in right direction
- Copyright thoughts
August 29th, 2009 at 10:54 am
I use Apple Itunes with my Apple TV. That seems to work OK. If I want a movie from the U.S., I go to my U.S. account and submit a voucher I brought from someone on E-bay.
Vote:August 29th, 2009 at 11:03 am
In NZ you can go to the movies and see a film for around $10 on a weekday.
Not if you have a wife and four kids in tow you can’t – a trip to the movies can easily run into three figures – believe me.
Vote:August 29th, 2009 at 11:55 am
DPF said: “making material available for legal purchase immediately” and “my expectation is that a movie should be NZ$5 at most to really get people buying them. Likewise I think $1 is around the sensible rate for a TV show.”
El….cheapo!!
Vote:August 29th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Try being an expat and wanting to see anything on the TVNZ or TV3 sites… your IP is detected and you’re told to piss off. Since all I’ve tried to watch are shows produced locally (not any of the content for which they may have bought NZ-only screening rights) I can only assume that they don’t want their material held up for scrutiny or fact-checked by offshore, independent sites.
[sarcasm]Wonder why?[/sarcasm]
Vote:August 29th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Can’t agree with the blog title.
A move “in the right direction” would be to make all entertainment type television pay-per-view.
This would of course reduce prices of such to a level you’d like and free up television for those programs no one in their right mind would buy – educational stuff, discovery channel, reality bullshit, Peter Jackson movies etc..
Rex, I’d have thought that would be a blessing.
Vote:August 29th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Andrei is right, going to the movies , 2 adults/2 children is not cheap. A lot of the cost is food too.
Maybe they can only offer this in the US – this service may infringe on the rights of the local distribution rights holders .
Entertainment globalisation is being slowed by the old style distribution model.
Thats another thing that bugs me – software . You can find much cheaper downloadable software on the internet from overseas countries. eg, microsoft office/windows , norton AV etc. But, they make you buy from the local NZ website, where it costs more. Why should “IP” cost more simply cos you live in NZ?
I understand products such as whiteware, electronics goods cost more here, due to economies of scale, shipping etc. But, movies/software can be flashed across the world in no time at all for virtually zero cost.
Vote:August 29th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Netflix is around $9/month for unlimited monthly movies via post and internet. Not sure if Netflix has proprietary DRM, but even so $9 a month would be a sweet deal if you have kids.
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