ThomasMahler
07-18-2006, 02:56 PM
July 18, 2006 - With three weeks until Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, Think Secret has learned exclusively that CEO Steve Jobs will use his keynote address to announce the debut of movie rentals through the iTunes Music Store. While the announcement will undoubtedly be billed as a further extension of iTunes' dominance in digital media downloads, it represents a coup for the movie industry, which will have succeeded in standing its ground against Apple's pressures to offer consumers the option of owning movie downloads.
Apple is said to have ironed out agreements with Walt Disney, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and Warner Bros., and is currently in talks with other major movie studios as well. It's unknown to what extent content will be available come the August 7 announcement, or whether Apple will announce all of its studio deals at that time.
Because the movies will be rented to consumers and not sold, people familiar with the situation report downloads will be coded with a date stamp that will restrict playback. It is not known exactly how the coding system will work, but industry experts tell Think Secret that the software would likely either limit the number of playbacks or provide unlimited viewing for a period of time, after which the movie will be "turned off" and no longer available.
Apple's decision to implement a rental model for movies will be a major departure for the company and Jobs. Apple had been trying for months to persuade the movie studios that the a-la-carte model of buying individual titles, as the iTunes Music Store offers with music, was the way to go. The studios, however, have been fixed on offering only a subscription or rental-based model.
"We knew that Steve [Jobs] saw the rental model as the only viable option," a person familiar with the situation said. "We knew it was a matter of time before he signed on."
"The subscription business makes sense for everybody. We'll all make money. But more importantly, it's a different beast from music and no one—not even Steve Jobs—is blind to that," the insider said.
Source: ThinkSecret.com
This could either be great or disastrous. If people manage to hack this service, they will be able to get full versions of films for the price that they actually rented the movie and the industry will suffer from that.
That's kind of the same thing Jobs did with the Music Industry - but back then he told the record companies that he's sure that people would hack subscription services and that Apple can't do anything against that. A quote from an interview with the Rolling Stone Magazine back then:
Because of their technological innocence, I would say. When we first went to talk to these record companies -- you know, it was a while ago. It took us 18 months. And at first we said: None of this technology that you're talking about's gonna work. We have Ph.D.'s here, that know the stuff cold, and we don't believe it's possible to protect digital content.
I honestly don't believe that a rental service for films would work. But maybe Jobs already thought about the consequence. If it's not going to work, if people hack the service and 'steal' the content, then two things could happen: Either the whole movie industry would quit the deal or they'd try it 'The Jobs way' - means that you'd buy the content like you can now buy mp3s. What do you guys think?
Apple is said to have ironed out agreements with Walt Disney, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and Warner Bros., and is currently in talks with other major movie studios as well. It's unknown to what extent content will be available come the August 7 announcement, or whether Apple will announce all of its studio deals at that time.
Because the movies will be rented to consumers and not sold, people familiar with the situation report downloads will be coded with a date stamp that will restrict playback. It is not known exactly how the coding system will work, but industry experts tell Think Secret that the software would likely either limit the number of playbacks or provide unlimited viewing for a period of time, after which the movie will be "turned off" and no longer available.
Apple's decision to implement a rental model for movies will be a major departure for the company and Jobs. Apple had been trying for months to persuade the movie studios that the a-la-carte model of buying individual titles, as the iTunes Music Store offers with music, was the way to go. The studios, however, have been fixed on offering only a subscription or rental-based model.
"We knew that Steve [Jobs] saw the rental model as the only viable option," a person familiar with the situation said. "We knew it was a matter of time before he signed on."
"The subscription business makes sense for everybody. We'll all make money. But more importantly, it's a different beast from music and no one—not even Steve Jobs—is blind to that," the insider said.
Source: ThinkSecret.com
This could either be great or disastrous. If people manage to hack this service, they will be able to get full versions of films for the price that they actually rented the movie and the industry will suffer from that.
That's kind of the same thing Jobs did with the Music Industry - but back then he told the record companies that he's sure that people would hack subscription services and that Apple can't do anything against that. A quote from an interview with the Rolling Stone Magazine back then:
Because of their technological innocence, I would say. When we first went to talk to these record companies -- you know, it was a while ago. It took us 18 months. And at first we said: None of this technology that you're talking about's gonna work. We have Ph.D.'s here, that know the stuff cold, and we don't believe it's possible to protect digital content.
I honestly don't believe that a rental service for films would work. But maybe Jobs already thought about the consequence. If it's not going to work, if people hack the service and 'steal' the content, then two things could happen: Either the whole movie industry would quit the deal or they'd try it 'The Jobs way' - means that you'd buy the content like you can now buy mp3s. What do you guys think?