DVD Releases and News

AOL Releases DRM-Crippled Movie Download Service

Here we go again...another online giant getting into the movie download biz.

This time it's AOL, who apparently have learned nothing from the gents that have been in the game awhile, namely Movielink and CinemaNow. AOL has signed deals with most of the major studios to start providing their movies and TV shows via their new-ish video portal, creatively dubbed "AOL Video." Prices range from $9.99 to $19.99, and your purchases are only viewable on your PC or a Windows Media portable device (sorry iPod owners!).

Now we didn't really expect the Digital Rights Management (DRM) employed by this service to play nice with Apple's iPods (after all, the same can be said in reverse), but to not include a burn-to-DVD option shows the industry's short-sightedness, once again, in meeting consumer demand. Don't get us wrong, we still dream of a day when we're able to download uncompressed HD video straight to the media center PC in our living rooms (we said it was a dream), eliminating all these stone age discs that are eating up more and more space beneath the entertainment center. But until that day arrives - and that will be a long wait indeed - studios need to allow content providers to release DRM-free digital downloads that can be sent to any device, or even burned to DVD for viewing in the living room, like it should be.

When Apple gets around to announcing their service (and you know it's only a matter of time), their hands will be shackled into the same moronic DRM bonds as their predecessors, leaving it to the pirates, once again, to find a way to circumvent the copy-protection so that consumers can merely practice Fair Use.

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Posted by on August 26, 2006 12:59 AM
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