p2pnet - rss feed: BitTorrent’s Aussie death knell
p2p news / p2pnet: In a move which is claimed to be the death knell of Bit Torrent and other unauthorised services in Australia, Australia’s largest ISP Telstra has announced the commencement of a new digital download service known as "BigPond Movies Downloads". That’s one word for “BigPond”, and a capital “B” and “P”).
Here’s my handy Q & A guide for those interested in the service:
(1) Are there a lot of films available on the service? Yes - just over 1,000. Any film you would ever want to see is there. You could watch one film a day for a thousand days, or one film every second day for two thousand days.
(2) Where do the films come from? Sony Pictures Television is the source of all film catalogue. They’re really good - they even have their own acronym - SPT.
(3) Any recent releases? Lots and lots - Spider-Man (not my hyphen), Bewitched, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Of course none of these films are from the last few months, but nothing good has come out recently anyway.
(4) How much? $5.95 for a movie, and $1.95 for a TV program. Cheap.
(5) Can you keep the film once you "buy" it? No - for that you’d have to go to a store and buy a DVD copy and the content owners don’t want you to do that any more. Films "expire" after a finite period and then they disappear from users’ computers. But don’t worry - if you like a film you can pay to download it again. In fact, there is no limit on the number of times you can pay for a download of the same film.
(6) Why can’t you pay for a permanent copy of the film? Lindsay Arnold, product manager for Bigpond Movies, reportedly said, "We’re supporting how the industry works at the moment.which is downloading for a period of time [as opposed to buying to keep].""
So, in the same way as the recording industry would like you to buy the same CD repeatedly for the home, office and car, and then an MP3 version for your iPod because they don’t want you to copy your CDs, Big Pond, I mean BigPond would also like you to pay for the film EVERY time you want to watch it. I guess when the accountants talked about "income streaming", this is the streaming they had in mind.
(7) Any DRM? Yes. Telstra encrypts all of its content with Windows Media 10 Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection. Telstra says this "prevents [the] copying and transfer of movies and television to other devices and controls the period over which the content can be viewed." Plus it ensures that consumers have a better quality product and maximises their satisfaction. And they get to use another acronym.
(8) Can Mac users "enjoy" the service? Of course. As long as they buy a PC first.
(9) Any other content, or is it just films? TV shows like The Shield, Rescue Me, Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis will be available, but not "hit" shows like Lost and 24 - but then you shouldn’t be watching hit shows on your computer anyway. It’s bad for your eyes, and the shows fit so much better on a television screen.
(10) Does Hollywood support the service? Sure. Toni Collette, who launched the service, reportedly said she wouldn’t use it, but she encouraged others to do so. Collette said "Anything legal that gets people interested in film is good. Personally, I will always go to the cinema. I think that films are made to be seen on the large screen. But that’s not always possible for people - what about those who can’t get themselves there?"
(11) Any regrets? Sadly "Mission Impossible" is not available on the service. Imagine the opportunities for service self promotion. "This film will self destruct on your computer in 5 seconds."
(12) Is there any word on whether the release timing will mean Australians will have to wait for online movies until more valuable territories have had their turn as is the case at present? Uh, dunno. Next!
(13) So this is the end for Bit Torrent? Yes - it’s all over for piracy in Oz. Why would anyone use BT in Australia when BP is a much better acronym.
The Wizard of Oz - p2pnet
February 27th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
IS this another spoof, or is it real news? If spoof, then [anything goes here]. If real, then what a load of crap; do content providers really think charging multiple times for the same thing is the way to go, that people won’t mind. Geeeeeeesh.
February 27th, 2006 at 11:04 pm
No, this is for real.
BigPond Movies - Brought to you by the ISP that counts downloads AND uploads in your monthly allowance.
Yuck!
February 28th, 2006 at 1:15 am
“The movie expires after a finite amount of times. But the user is welcome to purchase the download again and again and again”
They try to make it sound like its a good thing.. ..
Stupid.
February 28th, 2006 at 6:37 am
Seriously, who would pay good money to get repeatedly fucked over like that?
February 28th, 2006 at 7:28 am
if that is almost 6$ USD that is friggin outrageous and they must be smoking something to think even the stupidest of people would stop using bittorrent for some crap like that.
February 28th, 2006 at 6:27 pm
Oz? Oz? Isnt that where Dorothy went? You probably mean Aus, for Australia. Yeah and Big Pond aren’t getting any of my money, I’ll be buying DVD’s and while we’re on the subject of P2P etc, there’s a story here at this aussie site http://www.gasbo.net/stargate/news.htm that may interest all
February 28th, 2006 at 10:54 pm
Question answered.
March 1st, 2006 at 3:50 am
It’s in Aussie dollars and $1 Aus = about 75 US cents - still pretty expensive. I don’t think they really expect many people to use the service. Just another token nod to the digital revolution - of course we GET the internet … see look at this service, and by the way would you like to buy a song while you are here for $1.89 Aus?
March 1st, 2006 at 5:45 am
MORE MONEY FOR THE CORPS… HAVENT THEY MADE ENOUGH ???
March 1st, 2006 at 9:30 am
Not me, BT is *****g this new stoopid service up.
March 2nd, 2006 at 2:26 am
Yep…. a pile of horse s*it if you ask me. There are some people on this earth with very little intelligence. Seems like those geniuses at BigBong think that the end user falls into this category…. (well, perhaps their thoughts about Mac users are justified, but I digress). I’d love to see the results of a survey which questions how many BigBong employees actually use this service themselves?
Oh yes… please rip me off time and time again… just love throwing money away.
And what about the download costs?… sure, they’re quick to “delete” the movie, but are they willing to reimburse the download costs? Sh*t no…. it all adds up!
BidBong should do the electronic world a favour and delete themselves….
That’s my $5.95…. this message will delete itself once it’s viewed.
March 2nd, 2006 at 7:01 am
Actually, I went to a site about 2 months ago now I think that was in the US that allowed downloads of movies. I actually got the site from a coupon I saw in the store of a box of acne stuff, it gave 1 free movie download. I forget the place, but it was actually pretty resonably priced, and they even had 99cent downloads of the day and student discounts. And to those who are bitching that they’re paying and they can’t own the movie, it’s an online video store, not an online store, return your movies, or pay the price!!!!… oh yeah, be kind… rewind (remember that?… it was before dvds… those times sucked… in quality that is)
March 2nd, 2006 at 7:06 am
UPDATE: I remembered it was Nature’s Cure (not plugging, in fact I used the stuff, it don’t work) and the place is MoiveLink http://www.naturescure.com/movielink/ (still not plugging, I just wanted 2 let you know it’s been in the US and actually this one I think is a little better w/ the pricing and promotions)
March 2nd, 2006 at 1:53 pm
Don’t want your content to expire? (Or become ‘annulled’ in the vernacular of ZDNet’s description of the implementation of DRM as ‘CRAP’.)
Find and download one of the numerous ‘recorder’ programs available on-line that capture exactly what is coming out of your video card and sound card and duly records it. You probably need to have significant hard drive space available and do some post-processing, but you will have a very slightly degraded copy of what you viewed, plus no need to pay to download it ever again, no matter when it expires.
If you do this, you will have exploited the infamous ‘Analog Hole’ and will no doubt wind up on Big Content’s “A-Hole List.”
–TurboGeek
March 2nd, 2006 at 6:15 pm
“…by the way would you like to buy a song while you are here for $1.89 Aus?”
Keep in mind, when you pay to download a song file you are not BUYING anything. You are purchasing a license to listen to the song. How you use this file is strictly controlled by the copyright “owner” via the DRM malware imbedded in the file.
March 3rd, 2006 at 6:02 pm
How could that B S service of paying 6 bucks and not being able to
keep the movie, be the death Knell of anything , let alone BitTorrent.
Gotta come up with something better than that lame attempt for sure.