Movie studios fear quick downloads

Movie studios fear quick downloads

By John M. Moran

Hartford Courant

Researchers last month reported that they had set a world speed record for sending data across the Internet.

Using off-the-shelf hardware and standard connections, the group said it had shipped about 840 gigabytes of data halfway around the world in a mere 27 minutes.

That's more than 30 gigabytes per minute - plenty fast enough to download a Hollywood movie in a few seconds.

Imagine the possibilities: You download a movie almost instantly, burn it to a blank DVD with your computer, and in minutes you're watching it on your TV.

Skipping a few steps could make it even easier and faster. With a wireless link between your PC and your TV set, for example, you wouldn't even need a DVD burner. Indeed, you would probably have a tough time just getting to your couch before the download was complete.

All this may sound exciting to you. But it is scaring movie studios more surely than any horror flick ever filmed.

The movie industry is deathly afraid of facing what happened to the music industry, which has been shaken to its foundations by the speed and ease with which consumers can trade songs online.

Is the swapping of movies and TV shows the next online battleground? All signs say yes.

To be sure, movie studios have a bit of a head start on their music-industry counterparts.

For one thing, DVD burners remain relatively rare, though their popularity is growing. And most DVDs are copy-protected, meaning they can't be turned into downloadable files as easily as songs "ripped" from audio CDs.

Finally, most consumers are limited by the speed of their DSL or cable Internet connections. That makes downloading a full-length movie considerably more time-consuming than a few seconds.

Even so, the broad outlines of the trend are clear: faster connections, faster computers, more DVD burners. In five years, people could be swapping movies and TV programs every bit as easily as they now trade songs.

Already, according to one estimate, 400,000 to 600,000 films a day are being downloaded.

Even before the Internet speed record was announced, the Motion Picture Association of America said it was launching an anti-piracy campaign aimed at building on what it described as "extensive existing efforts to raise public awareness about illegal file swapping."

The campaign is set to include advertising in newspapers, magazines and more than 100 college newspapers. Special messages will also be shown in movie theaters to drive home the industry's point that downloading movies online is illegal and that movies are worth paying for.

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