“Apple Inc.’s plans to enter the nascent online movie rental business drew skepticism on Monday from Hollywood executives who questioned pricing, copy protection and the timing of a possible launch,” Bob Tourtellotte reports for Reuters.
“Sources inside and outside the major movie studios confirmed news reports the maker of computers and iPods is considering online film rentals to complement digital movie downloads that are already sold at Apple’s iTunes web site,” Tourtellotte reports.
“But the sources, who declined to be named because film licensing talks are preliminary, questioned Apple’s desire to fight copy piracy and the reported $2.99 price per rental,” Tourtellotte reports. “Some said that, because the film download market remains small, the studios do not need to rush into a deal with Apple… ‘It just feels like the ball is in our court,’ said one source.”
“Among several issues involving copy protection, some movie executives expressed concern that Apple’s digital rights management software would not adequately protect against unauthorized copies made for the video iPod and other devices,” Tourtellotte reports. “Given Apple’s history, however, several sources said entering the movie rental market was likely just a matter of time, although autumn 2007 was too soon.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “LinuxGuy and Mac Prodigal Son” for the heads up.]
Some collection of anonymous sources do not always represent the whole story. Sometimes they’re right. Sometimes they’re wrong. Sometimes they’re simply pushing their own agendas. Without Tourtellotte more clearly identifying his sources, his report’s import is impossible to quantify.
Others say that MDN lost its way into gossip world
I just want to know, when was the last time the movie industry, or the music one for that matter, have been right about any direction the world is moving in after CDs and DVDs? They get it wrong and they have no vision. And no eye for talent based on the movies and music passing for visionary or groundbreaking these days.
MW – soon – Soon there will be a huge shift in industry
(Movie Industry 2007) = (Music Industry 2001)
why can’t they see this?
I own 2 AppleTVs, so I definitely want to see an increase in the quantity of movies, improvement of the quality of the movies to at least the 720p equivalent already supported by the AppleTV and a rental (not subscription) model.
I don’t like the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray bullshit, because I chose the wrong format last time, so I’m going straight to digital downloads.
Has anyone tried emailing the movie studios? I’ve tried… I went to their websites and very few have any place that provides an address to contact them. I found a site that offered ways of contacting the movie studios, about half had an email address or web based contact page, of those about half the links/email addresses actually worked (and the working ones were mostly small studios that actually replied to me with a real reply, not some computer generated crap that didn’t even address the topic)…
The movie studios just don’t want our input…
I’ve also written Apple because there were a couple of smaller, specialty type/art house movie studios that actually replied to my emails and indicated that they had contacted Apple and wanted their content available via iTunes, but that Apple wasn’t interested in working with them at this time (they felt that Apple was trying to work with only the big studios).
Has anyone had any success at actually contacting the movie studios?
@Equation,
“(Movie Industry 2007) = (Music Industry 2001)
“why can’t they see this?”
Its really simple. Just like at Microsoft, Greed and the desire for fake power blinds them to everything. Period.
Its already too late.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> I have a friend with NO technical background. He has a video camera, a dvd burner, and a dark quite room. He rents movies, plugs them into the player, hits record and leaves. Later he has his own — non DRM copy of the movie that he can copy as much as he wants Like CDs. . Simple, easy, period.
The movie and music industry are blind, dumb, greedy old men who cannot see or understand.
MDN word “later” as in Its later than they think.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
Reuters quoting anonymous sources ? Give me a break !
It’s not as though Reuters have much of a track record for getting it right in the first place where Apple is concerned. If Reuters say it isn’t going to happen, count on it happening sooner rather than later.
Once one or two distributors start making significant sales through Apple are the others going to sit on their hands and say that they don’t want to sell their videos that way ?
They may feel that the ball may be in their court at the moment, but whatever they do, the ball will soon be Apple’s court and Apple will be in a stronger position by then. The distributors would be well advised to negotiate a deal before Apple gets more traction, because the deals made later won’t be so attractive.
Hollywood execs are morons, they’ve been pulling this sh*t since the days of Betamax. They’ll come around eventually…kicking and screaming the entire way.
As for the “HD-DVD/Blu-Ray bullshit” goes, it’s rather obvious that Blu-Ray will eventually win that format war. Toshiba (really the lone backer of HD-DVD) can’t even give away HD-DVD players these days no matter how hard they try.
I would definitely like to rent movies from Apple. Of the movies that I really enjoy and consider worth the purchase – than I’ll buy the DVD or whatever is available to buy (Blue-Ray or HD).
I would have to think that most people feel the same way.
The movie industry is forgetting that if I really wanted to- I could make a copy of their precious purchased DVD now.
I agree with “Equation”. The movie industry needs an quick eduction.
Resistence is futile,
We are Apple, You will be assimilated.
Unfortunately, the ball is in their court. UNlike music which had already been in portable listening devices since the 70s, movies have been distributed in sales and through strong rental channels– very successfully. There’s no dire need to jump into an agreement for them. Though $2.99 sounds great, I REALLY doubt that’s what it’s going to be.
I balked once…..
I have no desire to own most of the movies I go see. I also have no desire to copy them or spend hours and hours downloading them via torrents to store on huge hard drives (that I don’t have). I don’t even care about HD-DVD or Blu-ray quality. It would be nice to have, but I seriously find the movies on DVD just fine for my HDTV. I’m not that picky and neither are most people (look at how many people are buying these HD players…none! It’s got to be the slowest adoption of a technology I’ve seen). I have many other interests and just want to watch a movie when and where I want to watch it.
When will these goofballs (aka movie and music industries) learn that outside of uber geeks and bored college students, the vast majority of us play by the rules and just want an easier option? The former will ‘always’ find ways around the system. Give up on them. You’ll never win that battle. Focus instead on creating content and portals for people like me…who are happy to pay you.
Give us a rental option that works with iTunes and AppleTV please!
The movie studios think they can get people to cough up $40 a pop for the HD-DVD or Blu-Ray versions this Christmas.
So why do anything else until after Christmas?
Maybe Apple can just get Disney to go along this fall…
The movie industry is controlled by a bunch of greedy dogs, just like the music business. But like it or not, they need to grok digital media distribution or their goose is cooked. My local movie theatre just raised the admission price to ten bucks. Why should anyone have to drag their ass out into the cold, cruel world—not to mention burning $3.40 a gallon gasoline—just to see a movie in a theatre full of people who don’t know any better than to throw their garbage on the floor? The handwriting is definitely on the wall.
The studios are balking over fair use? Or studying Fairuza Balk?
We’ll never know.
@Scut
Ditto!
Plus, I’m tire of going to the video store and what I want to see is “Out of Stock”.
” . . . and what I want to see is “Out of Stock”.
Was that the sequel to “Out of Africa”?