Movie Availability on iTunes May Be Temporary
Frequent Macworld contributor Kirk McElhearn noticed something interesting when he went to grab a movie from the iTunes Store. Of the 15 films he had bookmarked for later viewing, an astounding nine were no longer available for purchase. Or rental. Nor, for that matter, did they seem to exist anywhere on the iTunes Store at all.
CNet explains that this is due to licensing agreements between the movie studios and Apple.Typically, movies have set distribution windows that are followed in order: theaters, DVDs, pay-per-view (and iTunes) and finally, broadcast TV. As movies cross over into broadcast TV distribution, they are being removed from Apple (and Netflix) distribution.
Normally, release windows don't affect retailers or video-rental services after they've begun selling or renting films. Warner Bros. doesn't go into Best Buy and pull DVDs off the shelf when Comcast airs Casablanca. The corner Mom and Pop video store doesn't surrender copies of Gladiator to Universal Studios when the film appears on ABC. But Internet stores are being treated differently. What this means for iTunes and Netflix customers is that movies will pop in and out of the services.
Those who have already purchased these films will, of course, be able to continue to watch them.Top Rated Comments
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The movies are overpriced, especially as we can only download so much without getting charged extra by our ISP.
Maybe in the UK. There's no limit on our ISP.
I read the article but I guess was only half paying attention.
Maybe in the UK. There's no limit on our ISP.
most isp's in the US have limits
read your contract, you might be surprised
edit: once such case by search
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2329170,00.asp
another case albeit trial
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080603-40gb-for-55-per-month-time-warner-bandwidth-caps-arrive.html
in short, any isp provider who thinks a user is abusing the bandwidth cap will be contacted and possibly shut off
WTF? Content providers really don't have a clue what the consumer wants anymore...
Maybe in the UK. There's no limit on our ISP.
Rogers and Bell, respectively Canada's largest cable and dsl providers, BOTH limit usage to within set rates. You go over, you pay more. I use a private DLS provider that offers unlimited use, although ultimately that will change if tier 1 providers penalise resellers accordingly.
DVDs are still on sale after the movie is broadcast on TV. Why not on iTunes too?
If they want to reduce piracy, they've got a funny way of doing it.
The movies are overpriced, especially as we can only download so much without getting charged extra by our ISP.
I agree. I'm w/ Comcast, not sure what my limit is, though.
One thing I don't like about the movies is you're paying as much for the iTunes version as the actual DVD, but only get the movie itself in English (or whatever language your store is) and nothing else. On DVDs, you get subtitles, often in multiple languages, multiple audio languages, audio commentaries, behind-the-scenes stuff & other special features. If we're going to pay the same price for for both, we might as well get all the features. Of course, all those extras would probably add loads to the download time, but some people (like me) like the special features. Maybe let you get just the movie for less & then everything for the same price as the DVD. I'm not sure how the actual DVD/packaging costs compared to the online/bandwidth costs.
That makes no sense.
DVDs are still on sale after the movie is broadcast on TV. Why not on iTunes too?
If they want to reduce piracy, they've got a funny way of doing it.
From AppleInsider.com:
But for whatever reason, Internet movie stores aren't being treated the same as their brick-and-mortar counterparts. They're instead seen by Hollywood as competitors to television networks and are therefor being treated as entertainment companies. The reason? Money.
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