p2pnet - rss feed: Universal Pictures UK scam
p2p news / p2pnet: One of Hollywood’s ruling Big Six movies studios has come up with a scam it hopes will increase earnings, and get it into the online downloads business. And it hopes it’ll spread around the world.
But there’s a proviso. It must first con UK punters into paying another $35 for movies they’ve already seen.
From next month, Universal Pictures will “allow” surfers to download DRM-polluted copies of already released flics, and to make up to two copies - one for DVD players or computers, and the second for a portable, says PC Pro.
At £19.95 (about $35) per download, “The service intends to officially kick off on 10 April with the DVD release of the blockbuster remake of King Kong directed by Peter Jackson - the man behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy - although it is already live today,” it says.
In return for giving Universal priceless marketing data such as street adresses and credit card information, marks will also get a physical copy of the DVD by snail-mail.
Universal tries to pass this off by saying its “current business plan” includes the physical version, “as consumers seem to like to have an actual copy as well as a download,” says the story.
The move, “coincides with a vociferous debate in the film industry over the best way to combat digital piracy,” says the Guardian Unlimited.
“But some doubt whether film lovers will agree to pay more to download a film as well as to buy it on DVD. The prices of DVDs have plummeted as a result of intense competition and many people now own cheap portable players.”
Meanwhile, the ’service’ will be offered through Lovefilm.com or through AOL and Universal plans to try to sell another 34 titles at prices ranging from £10.00 to £20 in the same way.
And where Universal goes, Time Warner, Viacom, Fox, Sony, NBC and Disney will surely follow. Eventually.
Also See:
PC Pro - UK to pioneer download-to-own movies, March 24, 2006
Guardian Unlimited - Kong heads ‘download to own’ revolution, March 24, 2006
March 24th, 2006 at 1:25 pm
This has to be one of the most stupid idea I ever heard of
March 24th, 2006 at 1:36 pm
Great for AOL users & Itunes users as they are thick as shit and will definately go for this one!
March 24th, 2006 at 1:46 pm
Enough said!
March 24th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
A criminal mind is all I’ve ever had…
Did you know you can now buy a DVD player for 1/5 the price of some “special edition” DVD movies on a 0.02 plastic disc?
SEED THE WORLD !
March 24th, 2006 at 2:41 pm
…when they say:
…”as consumers seem to like to have an actual copy as well as a download,”…
duh.
they just admitted that a so-called “illegally” downloaded shared file does not equate to a lost sale.
if a film is worth paying for - after having sampled it through filesharing - and it’s at a reasonable price, many people will buy it.
March 24th, 2006 at 5:35 pm
There’s a major mistake in the text here.
“to make up to two copies - one for DVD players or computers, and the second for a portable”
Nope. Not for DVD players. No transcoding. You get a bigger, DRMed file for your computer, and a smaller DRMed file for any portable appliance that will play DRMed WMV files… so owners of the two most common devices that can play video on the go - the video iPod and the PSP - are left on the sidelines.
Honestly - all they had to do was say that they’d bundle an un-CRAPed MP4 file at 320×240 for portable devices and people would be impressed at their foresight.
March 24th, 2006 at 8:58 pm
“But there’s a proviso. It must first con UK punters into paying another $35 for movies they’ve already seen.”
Is one going required to supply proof that one has already seen a particular film before they can access a paid download on this service? It seems to me that this would be very difficult to enforce and not worth the effort.
March 25th, 2006 at 9:47 am
When you pay they snail mail a DVD to you and allow you to do the download.