Word: files
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...supposedly disruptive technology facing the film industry is peer-to-peer networking. Whereas the original Napster offered free music only and was easy to shut down, its successors--Kazaa, Grokster, Morpheus et al.--trade movies too and have proved more resilient. The music labels fought all instances of unfettered file sharing until Apple CEO Steve Jobs helped broker a cease-fire in the form of the iTunes Music Store, which won praise from consumers and a route to profits for the labels. The film industry, however, is still in the trenches, trying to stall what it sees as an onslaught...
...Hollywood is pinning its hopes on a new tactic: federal legislation that would essentially target file-sharing technology. If passed, the so-called Induce Act, backed by such powerful legislators as Senate majority leader Bill Frist and Senator Hillary Clinton, would close the legitimate-copying loophole and empower the MPAA to sue peer-to-peer file-sharing services like Grokster after all. Opponents of the bill include usual suspects like the Electronic Freedom Foundation--the A.C.L.U. of the digital world--but also a surprising number of big businesses...
...same time, the studios can't exactly argue that file sharing is about to put them out of business. DVD sales, which grew 33% last year, and box-office receipts have never been stronger. So if technological breakthroughs were a boon for the movie industry in the past, why is the industry acting as if the sharing of movies online, as Valenti said a year ago, heralds the "undoing of society...
...copyright management has hamstrung the movie industry's attempts to make a business out of file-sharing technology. Two years ago, major studios launched a service called Movielink, which offers movies for downloading to your computer at about the same time they hit the pay-per-view window. Not only do the movies take hours to download, but they also disappear from Movielink's catalog altogether 90 days later, when they enter the premium-cable window. Because channels like HBO and Starz! offer lucrative licensing deals, Movielink has not been able to compete in the latter window...
...much time is open to debate. Ramsay says the industry has five years to figure out how to work file sharing into its business; Hastings thinks it's more like 10. (Both caution that contrary to some reports, we're not likely to see a full-fledged Netflix-TiVo deal in the immediate future.) The delay in incorporating file sharing has a lot to do with the slow speed of most Americans' Internet access. Even with cable and DSL connections that average 2 megabits per second, it can take 16 hours to download a movie with just a third...