Home -> Articles -> Download Movies Legally Before DVD Release

My wife and I were at a party in late May talking about the recently released Star Wars movie. The question was asked, “have you seen the movie yet?” One of my friends said yeah, we watched it at my house! I was amazed, and asked how did you watch it at your house when it was just released in the movie theaters last week? He causally said that it was downloaded from the internet.

According to Forrester research data about 3 percent of online households download movies offered for free. It is important to understand that there are millions of households with internet access, and even 3 percent is thousands of movies being watched for free. The number of people who actually buy and watch movies online is even smaller. So downloading movies seems to be in its infancy, but internet growth is amazing and it will not be long before the numbers compel a serious response from Hollywood producers.

Remember Napster and music CD file sharing lawsuits? The estimates differ on the total number of pirated CD’s, but it was enough that the music industry started to slap lawsuits on several teenagers. They were loosing so much money that CD sales almost dropped in half. The industry also responded by lowering the prices of music CDs. The music industry recognized if they did not lower prices that more music lovers would turn to pirated downloads rather than purchasing legal CDs. The only reason movies have not followed the same path is because movies take a lot longer to download. High speed internet access is becoming more affordable, and more and more households are now capable of downloading movies over the internet.

MovieLink and CinemaNow offer members the ability to download movies over the internet for a small fee, but titles only are available after they are released on DVD. Hollywood needs to come up with a way to offer movies over the internet before they are released on DVD. If not, the pirated versions will still be floating around the internet and downloaded by people who want the movie now!

Intel Corporation and actor Morgan Freeman have announced a joint business venture, created to allow consumers to access recent movies via the internet before they become available on DVD. ClickStar will be headed by former Sony Pictures executive Nizao Allibhoy. The service is planned to be available to users in early 2006.

Freeman’s goal is to make films “easier to buy than to pirate.” Hopefully the movie industry can learn from the music industry and avoid the huge losses due to pirated downloads over the internet. I see two tough obstacles. The first is to get the producers and theaters to step out of their comfort zone and try the ClickStar idea. The second will be to get households to understand and use the service.

Personally, I would rather watch movies like “Star Wars” and “War of the Worlds” at the theater. The theater has a way of making you feel like you are enveloped in the movie. With that said, it is sometimes hard to get to the theaters – I have three little children. With bigger televisions and excellent sound systems I would welcome the idea of watching some movies at home!

Advertisements, From TV Commercials to Movies Now, movie theaters are advertising more and more products before the previews, so we have a "pre-preview." Not to mention the previews have increased ten-fold! Why did TV commercials move to the theater?

Home Theater PC It seems that as the PC becomes more integrated with home theater capabilities, that we will eventually have one box on top of our television that merges the DVD player, stereo receiver, satellite receiver, digital video recorder, and of course your video games!

High Definition DVD (HD DVD) Most of us have a DVD collection, but many wonder what is going to happen as high definition DVDs (HD DVD) become available? Also, some may be asking, why is this new high definition DVD technology better?

Scratched DVD Solutions If you are like me, and have small children, it is inevitable that some of your DVD collection will become scratched or damaged. Here are three solutions for fixing or avoiding scratched and damaged DVDs.

Digital Video Recorder Digital Video Recorders are one of the best solutions to commercial free TV. They provide you with the ability to watch and record a show at the same time.

Intel Invests in Digital Movie Venture Intel and an entertainment company run by actor Morgan Freeman team up to give consumers access to recent movies via the Internet, and before they become available on DVD.

Man arrested in sweeping probe of pirated movies The scheme, they said, deprived the entertainment and software industries $50 million in lost revenue.