Hollywood knocks on the download door
In a victory for PR and Marketing:
Several major film studios are announcing plans Monday to make movies available for download onto PCs.
Consumers would be able to save the films to watch any time, and would pay between $10 and $30 to download, depending on how new the film is. New movies are expected to be released for download the day the DVD goes on sale.
The industry has been moving toward online distribution for a while, though just how eagerly is subject to debate. The new services, available through MovieLink and CinemaNow, should prompt repercussions along the distribution line, from DVD sales to cable TV to the video rental business.
Those of you who are regular readers of BBB will recall that MovieLink and CinemaNow (gotta love those iNterCap names) have been the long forgotten stepchildren of hollywood and the tech industry. What is amazing about this story is that it is a story at all. These services have been available for years (although the details have changed a bit) this is nothing new. Perhaps in light of the success of the iTunes Music Store selling tv downloads, the ugly stepchildren feel a little more confident these days.
We tried to checkout the details at the MovieLink site but encountered a stern:
Sorry, but as of May 2, 2005, Movielink no longer supports Windows 98 and ME operating systems.
Movielink also does not support Mac or Linux.
In order to enjoy the Movielink service, you must use Windows 2000 or XP, which support certain technologies we utilize for downloading movies.
And a similar warning pops up at CinemaNow:
You must use Internet Explorer Version 6 or higher on a PC running Windows 2000 or later in order to use the CinemaNow service.
Uh oh, we think we can predict how successful this Microsoft DRM‘d crap is going to be already.
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I’m pretty sure the convenience factor of waiting six hours to download something DRMed to shit is well worth twice the cost of a DVD I can play in most anything I own (toaster included). Whatta buncha maroons.
Posted by thedaniel on 04/03 at 03:24 PM> gotta love those iNterCap names
>
Just as a matter of technical minutia, a popular term used for intermixing of capitals is also Camel Case. Given this blog intends to be technically savvy, thought you might want to remember us geek readers too, and consider using that term instead of the lesser known term, “InterCaps.” Subtle credibility play, maybe… ;-)CamelCase (also knonw as “medial capitals") is a method for representing compound words and phrases, joined without spaces. The name is a play on the the notion of a camel, wherein the Camel’s humps reflect the capitals within the compound phrase.
The reason it might subtly bump your crediblity (no pun intended) is that CamelCase is a standard convention for labeling identifiers in programming languages such as C, C++, Objective-C, SmallTalk, Java, and others. and (not surprisingly) it has become hip among technology marketers.
It’s probably worth adding that formal written English style guides frown upon such a convention and such is rarely used.
Posted by Gregory Miller on 04/04 at 10:25 AMActually Greg, I think I was being too subtle for even you. I was referring to the broader trend and not just these two Hollywood firms. iPod and iTunes come to mind and technically the term for this area is StudlyCaps:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StudlyCaps
BBB has hardcore geeks but also a lot of non-engineering savvy folk so we tend to keep our nerdiness turned down a notch. That way our moms, grandpas and Paris Hilton can still get enjoyment from it all.
Posted by BigBrainBoy on 04/04 at 11:24 AM
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