Warner Bros launches Mouldy Oldies
p2pnet news view | P2P | Movies:- Warner Bros is now trying to sell copies of 150 films from the ’silent era’ to the 1980s that’ve never been released on DVD !
WOWEEEEEE!
And they’ll only cost $15 !!!! (Or $20 by mail).
What a DEAL!
Warner’s decision to open up its vault “sounds like it’s a risk-free way for them to generate a little money on some very old content,” the Associated Press has Tom Adams, president of Adams Media Research, saying.
No kidding. Like very old content.
And it’ll only cost $15 per !!!! (Or $20 by mail).
Actually, it’s not a bad idea, except for the awesome rip-off pricing.
Anyhow, calling it an “initiative,” the Time Warner subsidiary hopes to “combat what could be a fundamental decline in demand for DVD purchases – a falloff that can be blamed on market saturation as much as the recession,” says the story, noting, “Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger warned of this shift last month when he noted that most U.S. households own 80 DVDs already, leading people to become ‘more selective’ about what discs they buy.”
Titles include The Mating Game, from 1959, and a, “string of Cary Grant flicks from ‘Mr. Lucky’ (1943) to ‘Once Upon a Honeymoon’ (1942).”
A little too mouldy?
Then how about Wisdom, a “modern-day Robin Hood tale from 1986 starring Emilio Estevez and Demi Moore”.
Home video revenues in some cases accounting for 60% more money than what a studio collects at the box office, says AP, “So the recent decline has forced studios to do everything from lay off staff to pare back movie making.”
And blame P2P file sharers, of course
Many of the titles Warner have already “made the rounds on another Time Warner subsidiary, the Turner Classic Movies cable channel, and on VHS,” observes AP, adding Robert Crawford, a 53-year-old auto worker, “bubbled at hearing of upcoming releases such as ‘Beast of the City’ (1932) starring Walter Huston and Jean Harlow, or ‘Rasputin and the Empress’ (1932), which features three Barrymore siblings, including modern ‘Charlie’s Angels’ actress Drew Barrymore’s grandfather, John.”
Money to waste? Click here.
Associated Press – Warner Bros. brings film vault into digital age, March 23, 2009
March 24th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
These films should be in the public domain by now, and not in the hands of these thieves who take from public domain without giving back to it.
So, feel free to download them from thepiratebay.org !
March 24th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
No doubt they will end up on the Pirate Bay and other torrent sites. After all, only one
person has to purchase them and then upload them to the web for everyone else online
to be able to get them for free.
March 24th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
getting desperate for a buck and milking that copyright abuse to the fullest
YUP sell you crap thats soo old that if you were alive when it first played YOU are almost dead now.
YA that benefits society
March 24th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
1959 is public domain in canada
and it should be ten years PERIOD
March 24th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
AND that measn you can burn htem sell htem and do anyhitng you want wiht any film 1959 or older
GO NUTS FREEEEEEEEEEEE
March 25th, 2009 at 12:35 am
I don’t have a problem with these films being released. Hell, I don’t even have a problem with the studio retaining the copyright (for now). But $15 apiece? No sixty year old film on DVD should cost more than $5, unless it’s the two-disc special edition of Casablanca, with over 2 hours of outtakes of Humphrey Bogart belching or vomiting after every line.
March 25th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
” No doubt they will end up on the Pirate Bay and other torrent sites. ”
Most are already out there.
Just got Arsenic and Old Lace for my daughter, for a school report.
Couldn’t find it anywhere else, DVD OR VHS.
Her boyfriend ‘recognized’ Peter Lorre from the old Warner Brothers cartoons where he
was caricaturized ( is that a word ? ) .. asked me .’ Is THAT the guy from those old Bugs
Bunny cartoons ? ‘ . Funny as hell.