p2pnet - rss feed: Traffic throttling Bell opens video store
p2pnet news | Movies:- Bell Canada is royally screwing customers who use P2P applications, accusing them of causing huge online traffic jams.
It’s blocking their accounts but now, in an act of sheer, unmitigated gall, it’s also trying to get them to buy over-priced Bell movie downloads.
It’s Canada’s, “first online service to offer download-to-own movies the same day they become available in retail stores,” says the Globe and Mail.
It’s a, “collaboration between Bell and its partners, which includes digital delivery services developed by ExtendMedia as well as content from Paramount Pictures, Corus Entertainment, Maple Pictures, Eros Entertainment and Image Entertainment.”
It’s the barest, baldest example of naked arrogance seen for a long while.
‘Five-star ratings’
“Aside from the Bell Video Player, content can also be viewed using Windows Media Player, a Media Centre compatible computer and a PlaysForSure portable device to be released some time this month. Content can be streamed from a Media Centre computer to a television using a Windows Media Centre Extender such as an Xbox 360 console or from a machine running Windows Vista (Home Premium or Ultimate). Downloaded videos may be burned to a DVD disc for storage purposes, but the resulting DVD will not play on a DVD player.”
Coool. DRM-polluted Bell movies. Yum!
Bell says the content is “DVD and above quality,” delivered at bit rates from 1.5 to 2.5, resulting in file sizes of about one gigabyte for one hour of content. As a result, the service requires a broadband.
The company is even suffering under the delusion that people will want to give “five-star ratings to the content, write reviews and comments, add friends and send messages,” says the Globe and Mail.
Bell is trying to peddle the movies for $5 with rentals, keyed to self-destruct 24 hours after downloading, at $2.
Jon Newton - p2pnet
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.Stumble It!
blocking their accounts - p2pnet traffic shaping digest, April 19, 2008
Globe and Mail - Bell launches video download store, May 21, 2008
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May 22nd, 2008 at 6:35 am
Buying a video in such quality to download and keep at a comparative cost of £2.50uk would be pretty reasonable imho. The only problem here is that it would not translate as £2.50uk, more like £5uk for the same service. Plus the DRM nightmare kills it for all those who don’t have media centre based crap technology to stream media to just to watch it easily on their telly.
So. Even if it did actually cost £2.50uk to download, there’s still the TIME it takes to download along with the TIME and frustration to find a way to remove the DRM just so 90% of paying customers can actually watch it without needing to burn off extreme wastes of energy (and noise) running swathes of computers to watch a movie.
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:35 am
So this is the reason why my downloads can’t go faster than 25k/s anymore? … (and I’m not even with Bell, I’m with AEI, who uses Bell’s network like every other DSL ISP in Quebec).
May 22nd, 2008 at 7:04 am
Nice that they’re “plays for sure” compatible. That means FairUseforWM will work to strip the DRM off the wmv file. Sweet! Gotta get me one just so I can strip the DRM and offer it up on emule!
May 22nd, 2008 at 7:11 am
only on emule?
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:45 am
Another of these corporations that can’t compete with free. So the solution is to find some way to kill the competition, ie throttling p2p. Piracy exists for one reason. To fill a vacuum that the public wants and the media corporations can’t or won’t meet. DRM at any price is no bargain. If I am going to spend money on something I want something to show for it in return. I don’t consider useless dead dvd discs of value when it comes to showing that what I bought for the money.
Till they figure out that low price, high quality, unrestricted items are what the market is demanding, I’ll continue to use other means to obtain what I wish. I will also continue to raise cain about these corporations trying to herd us into some little pasture with little choice while the world opens up for everyone else.
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:27 am
For those who may be tempted by Bell’s…. um, offerings. Keep in mind, if Bell’s “Video Store” goes away (very probable) so does your ability to play the movies you “purchased”. You won’t get a refund or credit at another “movie store”, just screwed.
Kids, don’t do DRM!
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:06 am
Though I knew about Bell’s intention to do stuff like this, for some reason, I thought they would have waited until the outcome of the CRTC hearings against them, before launching this. (For obvious reasons.)
Unmitigated gall, indeed!
Then again, the CRTC might just want to know, before handing down a ruling, how users of video stores such as this will differ from the “P2P bandwidth hogs” that Bell claims are “hijacking all the resources” and “stealing enjoyment from the other 95% of its users”!!
In launching this store, Bell may very well have shot itself in the foot.
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:49 pm
That’s staggeringly typical for Bell and others like them. They want to introduce a new service that requires massive amounts of bandwidth, which they believe will generate large amounts of new income. Instead of upgrading their infrastructure to provide that service in addition to their old services, they simply shut down some old services - services that didn’t directly make them money, naturally. That’s the name of the game for these pigs: don’t offer more, just offer what makes you more.
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:51 pm
if there is any justice in the this world this f**ktard business should be closed down.(fat chance). Never mind I can dream. hahahahahaha.
May 23rd, 2008 at 2:03 am
It seems to be getting harder to get movies I want. If I could download them for $2-$5 I may consider it if they were unavailable elsewhere. When they can be found often there’s no seeders or a few with a minor trickle rather than a torrent.
I thought we were winning. So where’s the movies then? If they are there it’s no use trying to hide it, and pointless to offer them if hardly anyone knows.
May 24th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
wordpress eating my comment test
May 24th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
wordpress eats my comments when I put a name in the optional name box
May 24th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Does Canada have anti-trust laws because in the US this would probably mean a lawsuit….