Apple getting online movie rentals?
Hot on the heels of the rumors of Amazon hooking up with Netflix is the Financial Times reporting that Apple is now talking to Hollywood about online movie rentals! This is pretty interesting, presumably such a beast would operate through the iTunes store and would significantly increase the library of movies available there. Once those movies are with Apple, it seems like it’d also end up being easier to convince those studios to also sell them online. I mean, they’re already there and all, why not?
The article says Apple plans on renting a film for $2.99 and that gives you 30 days. It doesn’t mention anything about resolution, but I’m guessing it’d have to be pretty high - people don’t want to rent a movie and have it be like back in the VCR days. I just wonder if the DRM will be effective - remember DIVX (distinct from DivX)? I’m guessing, though, that Apple would get this right (well as right as you can get DRM). They’re saying that you’ll be allowed to move this to other devices (i.e. your iPod).
But you know that this is just going to be cracked immediately. It will just be another front in the war between piracy and DRM makers. My fear would be that if Apple does make the quality of these downloads good and the DRM is hacked, then the studios may freak out and step away from online distribution or do some other kind of crazy thing.
Ah, it’ll be interesting to see if this actually happens and if it does, how it turns out. I’m certainly looking forward to something like this - god knows the VOD service I have is lackluster at best. Oh well, lotta Apple news this month with WWDC today and the iPhone coming out at the end of the month! Good times.
