Warner Bros. to Try File Sharing in Germany

Carl Bialik writes "The Wall Street Journal reports that Warner Bros. plans to sell TV shows and movies online in Germany via P2P. In2Movies, to launch in March, 'will feature movies dubbed into German, including "Batman Begins" and "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," for a fee that Warner says will be similar to the cost of a DVD. It will also offer television shows like "The O.C." and locally made programs and movies. Users, who will have to register for the service, will be able to keep the movie indefinitely. But instead of getting a movie from a central server, pieces of it could come from other people on the network who also bought that movie.' The president of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group says, 'Studios can't just turn their backs and hope "P2P" is going to go away tomorrow.'"

Country dependent

[Tethys_was_taken]

This may work in EU countries where most broadband users have uncapped links, but in countries like Australia (or India, but there are bigger problems in that case), where most connections have usage caps, this is not going to work. People are going to refuse to pay for the content and then pay for the data transfer.

That said, it's a nice change to see some positive developments as far as the ??AA and the internet go, and a very welcome change from banning all innovation, as they tried recently...

Peer Impact to Offer NBC \Universal Movies

[microbrewer]

Press Release:11-17-2005

NBC UNIVERSAL AND WURLD MEDIA ANNOUNCE ON DEMAND DEAL FOR MOVIE AND TV EVENT CONTENT ON PEER IMPACT SERVICE

Peer Impact becomes the first legitimate Peer to Peer to offer Video On Demand

Englewood Cliffs, NJ and Saratoga Springs, NY -November 17, 2005 - NBC Universal and Wurld Media, the creator of the legitimate Peer to Peer (P2P) service Peer Impact, today announced an agreement that will make Universal movies and NBC Universal TV events content available to Peer Impact customers on demand. This agreement marks the first ever license of major studio content to a legitimate P2P service. Titles will be available for rental for a 24-hour viewing period after purchase.

"NBC Universal has a long history of embracing technology to better serve our viewers," said Bob Wright, vice chairman of GE and chairman and CEO of NBC Universal. "This agreement is a significant step forward in our goal to capitalize on the myriad possibilities of new digital-media services, in a way that allows us to safeguard our content from illegal distribution."

"NBC Universal is committed to providing our content to consumers in a way that meets their needs," said David Zaslav, president, NBC Universal Cable. "This agreement with Wurld Media furthers that commitment by allowing consumers to view the highest-quality movies securely on their computers."

"It has been a great honor to work with the executives at NBC Universal with whom we share a common vision for the future of this consumer marketplace," said Gregory Kerber, Chairman and CEO of Wurld Media. "This monumental convergence of technology and entertainment will bring digital media into the living room of the consumer, placing on-demand entertainment at their fingertips."

Peer Impact offers its users a secure, high quality environment for rental and purchase of digital content, including music, video games, and with this announcement, for the first time, major film and television event titles. For the benefit of its users, all content is placed on the P2P network by Wurld Media - no unauthorized content can be introduced on to the network.

As with all digital content that is traded over Peer Impact, users will earn Peer Cash for their participation in distributing videos on the network and for recommending video purchases to others. Peer Impact's unique technology allows members to earn cash back for acting as "paid redistributors" of content purchased over the network. Users simply leave their computers on, and if they are selected as a source of fulfillment for purchases on the network, they receive Peer Cash that may be used toward future purchases.

On demand movies from the Universal film library include Academy-Award winning films "Ray" and "The Motorcycle Diaries; " recent titles such as "Meet the Fockers" and "The Bourne Supremacy" as well as upcoming premieres of "The Skeleton Key", "Cinderella Man" and "The Forty Year Old Virgin." Specials and stunts include "Jerry Springer: Uncensored," "5th Wheel" and "Blind Date" franchises; family-friendly programming like "Kicking & Screaming," the "Balto" series and "The Land Before Time." In addition, "Laura Sin Censura," one of the most successful Hispanic VOD offerings to date, will also be available to Peer Impact customers.

This announcement is the latest in Peer Impact's licensing and distribution arrangements. Peer Impact recently launched the first multimedia version of their service, which introduced over 1000 video games to the service and has bolstered its music catalog to include not only all major music labels but the largest independent labels as well.

# # #

About NBC Universal

NBC Universal is one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. Formed in May 2004 through the combining of NBC and Vivendi Universal Entertainment, NBC Universal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entert

Re:Especially considering the slow uploads...

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Any reasonable P2P protocol splits the file up into packets and sends out requests for packet numbers- you aren't going to be pulling from just one source, so upload bandwidth really doesn't matter as much.

Why "P2P"???

[Nicolas MONNET]

Can't they afford to pay for the fucking bandwidth? A few gigs of data download should'nt cost more than a cent or two. Compared to what they plan to charge for the movie, it's nothing.

Huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

I still don't get this. Why on earth would I want to pay for a movie that I didn't get directly from them? Further why would I want to then give them free use of my computer and net connection to warehouse their product for other customers? This isn't embracing P2P its trying to get a free lunch. This would only make sense if users got some fraction of the income from each movie downloaded from their computer.