[- NEWS -] Online movies around the cornor

[Kn'thrak]

AMERICANS could be watching newly released movies via the internet as soon as mid-2005 as the industry speeds development of a secure delivery system, Hollywood's chief lobbyist said.

...

Fighting piracy it says is putting its financial health at risk, Hollywood is working with high-tech experts, including Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and universities, to develop a secure system for delivering movies, he said.

Mr Valenti said the industry has no current plans to sue pirates, as the music industry is doing, but isn't ruling it out because he has seen surveys showing music piracy is being taken more seriously since the lawsuits began early this year.

Australian IT

Well, this is a positive step towards nailing piracy. With iTunes out, a legal way getting music, now someone @ MPAA thought of this good way to share good quality movies. In the long run, should elimate a major part of piracy. A good step!

[Jake]

This is a move towards even greater movie watching freedom

I predict that in less than ten years people will have cable modems in their TVs and all programming will be on demand, the way some movies are already on cable

[Shrubz]

Heh no need for cable modems in their TV's. The onDemand services now just come through your digital cable boxes... that acts as a modem for the digital tv services if you will.

[Jake]

Do you know by any chance how fast is that modem? I imagine that if they were to introduce w whole day of on demand programming, you would probably need to download in advance to avoid that wait when streaming begins, you need that if people were to switch channels

[Shrubz]

I'm not quite sure what you mean. When I start an onDemand show on digital cable it begins within 5 seconds, and it's in full quality, some with Dolby Digital 5.1