Download-To-Own Movies: Get Less For More!

from the business-models-that-stink dept

You may recall CinemaNow - the major studio backed online movie downloading company - from the review in the NY Times last year which included such great quotes as: "How CinemaNow stays in business is a marvel. The site is so marred by typos and poor programming, it could have been a high school sophomore's first Web design project." and "CinemaNow stand[s] out primarily for [its] puny selection, poor video quality and overly rigid copy protection." A ringing endorsement. Well, now it looks like they're trying to adjust their business model, and instead of just allowing people to watch movies for a limited time, they're starting up a "download-to-own" feature complete with annoying copy protection (of course). As with the download movie rentals, you get less for more. Now, instead of actually owning a DVD that you can play anywhere on any machine (and which comes with extras and perhaps a booklet with more info), you get a digital copy of the movie that is completely clamped down on the machine you downloaded it on. Also, the prices are more expensive than buying a DVD. A quick look at their featured choice for "download-to-own" shows that you can get the same movie, brand new, on DVD at Amazon for $3.75 less. They're also claiming that you can now start watching a movie 30 seconds after it begins downloading. If it really works well, that's great, but if it includes typical video buffer loading pauses, I imagine it's not going to make many movie renters happy.

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