A major movie studio will begin an experiment next week making feature films available for downloading over the Internet.
Published:
20 January 2001 y., Saturday
On Monday, Miramax will allow its 1999 release "Guinevere," starring Sarah Polley and Stephen Rea, to be downloaded for $3.49. It will take about 30 minutes to move over a high-speed Internet connection. The digital version of "Guinevere" will play on home computers full-screen in near-DVD quality.
But there's a catch: The downloaded movie expires in 24 hours, and cannot be played on your computer after that. If you e-mail a copy to a friend or transfer it to another device, it will not play at all.
Studios are struggling to develop an Internet movie strategy, hoping to have workable alternatives available before a Napster-like Web site makes swapping pirated films as easy as downloading the latest Britney Spears ballad. Their earlier experiments with producing original short films and animation for the Internet failed, leaving studios wondering how to use Net technology while protecting their copyrights.
"Guinevere" will be available for download at www.miramax.com, www.sightsound.com and www.guineverethemovie.com.
Miramax, a division of the Walt Disney Co., signed a deal in April with SightSound.com to offer 12 feature films on the Web. The arrangement is an experiment in consumers' willingness to watch downloaded films on a pay-per-view basis.
Other studios have been exploring a video-on-demand strategy, making movies available over high-speed cable television lines or over private networks.
Šaltinis:
nydailynews.com
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
A new exhibition at The Guggenheim Museum reveals winners of a worldwide competition of video art submitted via YouTube.
more »
Tourists will soon be able to get a gladiator-eye view of Rome’s Colosseum, as the dungeons and the upper third tier of the world's most famous fighting arena open to the public.
more »
The President of the European Commission said, “With this Nobel Prize, the international community acknowledges the fruitful work of one of the best writers of our times.
more »
At its four-day meeting in Madrid, the selection panel appointed to assess the cities applying to be a European Capital of Culture in 2016 recommended that the following be preselected from a fiercely competitive field: Burgos, Córdoba, Donostia-San Sebastián, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Segovia and Zaragoza.
more »
Archaeologists in Peru discover a burial site from an ancient civilization that predates the Incas and would have been in existence near the time of Christ.
more »
The World Cup Tango competition gets under way in Buenos Aires.
more »
An amateur artist from St. Petersburg, Russia, offers paintings which she creates with her breasts.
more »
Summer is the season for cultural festivals. With a bumper harvest of cultural events out there, what better time of year to head off and sample the exceptional places and world-class artists that Europe has to offer?
more »
The Dalai Lama inaugurates a 106-foot-tall Buddha statue in India's Kashmir.
more »
Akadimia Platonos, Die Fremde and Illégal were the three films shortlisted on Tuesday for the European Parliament's 2010 LUX film prize, during an event at the Venice International Film Festival.
more »