Netflix’s new instant-watch movies online—and the browser model for e-books
Just when the first HD DVD films are reaching BitTorrent, Netflix is about to offer movies online with a twist—obviously done with piracy worries at least partly in mind.
You’ll be able to watch movies via the Web but not download them. See New York Times article and press release. Excerpt from release: “Subscribers will continue to receive DVDs by mail from the company’s market-leading catalog of over 70,000 titles and will have the additional option of instantly watching about 1,000 movies and TV series on their PCs.”
Lesson for e-book biz, maybe
Would Netflix’s instant-watch service be yet more evidence that the browser model could be the way for the e-book industry to go, what with WiFi becoming more and more common?
A “must” option, as I see it, would be to avoid the E-Book Museum approach, allow full interactivity and still let interested consumers own e-books for real. Yep, that does mean downloads. A browser model would not preclude the use of locally stored files—a “must” for travelers and for people in areas ill-served by broadband providers. Let’s just hope that the files won’t be locked up in proprietary formats in the future and that DRM compatibility questions (nope, not my favorite technology) can be addressed.
Related: Privately, Hollywood admits DRM isn’t about piracy, from Ars Technica. Instead, gasp, could it actually be about selling you back rights you already own?
Also see AT’s A look at Hollywood’s congressman, Rep. Howard Berman. As a DRM champion, which I’m not, Berman is calling for government-encouraged standardization of protection schemes.
I myself prefer emusic.com’s DRMless approach and think the e-book industry could learn from it.
January 18th, 2007 at 3:22 am
I’ve been waiting for Netflix to stream movies. I just wish they were doing it across cable TV pipes rather than the Net (and anything rather than via Windoze). But this brings us one step closer to a true film Mecca: anything, anywhere, whenever.
The ebook biz can definitely learn from this. Just the other week when I ordered Thomas Bernhard’s The Voice Imitator, I came upon tantalizing samples online at the publisher. I was keen to read the entire book at that moment. Instead, a few pointless calls around to the local big box booksellers later (there are no surviving indy bookstores in my three-college neighborhood), I was in Amazon limbo, as usual.
Wouldn’t the U of Chicago Press have preferred to get the full 10 clams for itself for the price of an email and a PDF?
May 21st, 2008 at 11:23 pm
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