Warner Bros. to distribute movies, TV shows via BitTorrent

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Animala
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Warner Bros. to distribute movies, TV shows via BitTorrent

Unread postby Animala » Tue May 09, 2006 10:35 pm

<ul>http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/services/2006-05-09-warner-bros-p2p_x.htm?POE=TECISVA

Warner Bros. to distribute movies, TV shows via BitTorrent
Posted 5/9/2006 12:01 AM ET

By Gary Gentile, The Associated Press


LOS ANGELES — Warner Bros. will become the first major studio to distribute its films and TV shows over the Internet using peer-to-peer technology developed by BitTorrent that has been a popular tool for trading pirated copies of movies.

The companies did not specify a date but said the service will be offered starting this summer. Pricing is also undetermined, although individual TV shows could be priced as low as $1 and movies will be sold for about the price of buying a DVD, BitTorrent said.

Warner Bros., a division of Time Warner, said it will use BitTorrent's ability to speed the downloading of large computer files to offer rentals and purchase of its films on the same day the movies become available on DVD.

The studio also will sell permanent copies of films and TV shows online that can be burned to a backup DVD, although the copy will only play on the computer used to download the film and not on standard DVD players.

The deal is aimed at converting some of the file-sharing users who regularly seek illegal copies of films and TV shows by offering them a reliable experience at a reasonable price on the same system used by online pirates.

"If we can convert 5, 10, 15% of the peer-to-peer users that have been obtaining our product from illegitimate sources to becoming legitimate buyers of our product, that has the potential of a huge impact on our industry and our economics," said Kevin Tsujihara, president of the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.

BitTorrent uses a technique called "file swarming" to distribute large files. Rather than download a single large file from one central computer, BitTorrent assembles files from separate bits of data downloaded from other computer users across the Internet.

Studios have been discussing such deals with BitTorrent since last November, when they reached a settlement with the company aimed at reducing illegal traffic in online films.

Last year, BitTorrent agreed to remove links to pirated versions of movies from its website and remove online links leading to illegal content owned by the seven studios that are members of the Motion Picture Association of America.

Studios believe that offering reasonably priced legal alternatives will be preferable to downloading files that could contain viruses or poor quality copies of films.

"Those are the kinds of baby steps to offer users a good trade off, a good alternative to doing things the wrong way," said Ashwin Navin, president and co-founder of BitTorrent.

The speed of downloading a large movie file will depend on how many individual computers in the network have the file. The more computers, the faster the process.

Ideally, once a particular movie has been "seeded" on the system, Warner Bros. estimates a download could take as little as 10 minutes. TV shows could take even less time to download because the files are much smaller.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</ul>

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Re: Warner Bros. to distribute movies, TV shows via BitTorre

Unread postby BrainWalker » Wed May 10, 2006 10:32 am

Huh.

Interesting!

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Re: Warner Bros. to distribute movies, TV shows via BitTorre

Unread postby Zemyla » Wed May 10, 2006 11:57 am

Yes, but each show will only play on one computer, so they can't get the file-swarming economies of scale that make BitTorrent practical. <p>-----
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Re: Warner Bros. to distribute movies, TV shows via BitTorre

Unread postby Nakibe » Wed May 10, 2006 2:21 pm

Smarter than the RIAA!

... yeah, I know, its not useful. I just had to point that out.

Aside from that, its an interesting idea that I was actually hoping companies would've caught on to MUCH earlier. <p><span style="font-size:small;">

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Re: Warner Bros. to distribute movies, TV shows via BitTorre

Unread postby PriamNevhausten » Wed May 10, 2006 4:23 pm

I wonder if it will actually work. <p><span style="font-size:xx-small;">"It's in the air, in the headlines in the newspapers, in the blurry images on television. It is a secret you have yet to grasp, although the first syllable has been spoken in a dream you cannot quite recall." --Unknown Armies</span></p>

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Re: Warner Bros. to distribute movies, TV shows via BitTorre

Unread postby Animala » Wed May 10, 2006 7:41 pm

Me too. I wonder, what is the starting costs of a venture like this? If it breaks even, or turns even the littlest profit...well, I was taught back in the day that if you can make a penny of profit, you go and make that penny of profit. Makes sense to me--you're only building a customer base and getting your name known, spread around.

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