Peer-to-peer goes legitimate
In most countries, the music industry is taking song-swappers to court. But the sheer demand for downloading is forcing record labels, and now movie companies, to work with online retailers to offer legitimate alternatives.
[…] The editor of UK magazine Rip ‘n’ Burn, Tom Dunmore, says the film studios today are in the same situation record labels were four years ago.
“It’s absolutely crucial that the movie industry embraces downloading and provides legal services now, before the number of people using P2P for movies goes through the roof and people get used to getting movies for free.”
Hollywood’s response has been to go after the lawbreakers at a time when there are just a handful of alternative sites sanctioned by the industry.
[…] Carlo, Paul, Terry and Michael, of 3 Miles From, one of the hottest unsigned bands in the UK, do not want to sit around waiting for a record label to tell them they are good.
They want you to download and share their music for free.
Paul Chamberlain, the group’s guitarist, says: “We recognise the internet is going to be one of the ways forward, but it’s just a short cut for us really.
“It’s a way we can reach a phenomenal amount of people straight away. We just want more and more people to hear our stuff.”
[…] BBC director of new media Ashley Highfield, says file-sharing is a great way to control the cost of delivering large files like TV programmes quickly.
He explains: “Every person who comes to us to get a video file of a programme to watch it costs us to distribute it over the internet to them.
“P2P will help us substantially reduce our distribution costs. We send it out once and then people share the programmes among themselves.”