Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Film Studios Frightened Of Downloads

Warner Bros. is tentatively testing the waters of legal downloads. In Germany, they'll start making movies like "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and TV shows like "Friends" available for legal downloading. Why only Germany and why only WB?

Really, how stupid can major companies be? They run screaming from new technology every single time, no matter how often the feared device (VCRs, DVDs, TV, cable, etc.) proves a godsend and financial windfall. (Studios grossed $25 billion from sales and rentals of DVD and VHS last year. Record labels got an extra $1 billion from downloads -- all "found" money.) Now with Apple's legal downloads an immediate success, you'd think studios would be falling all over themselves to make their content available. Nope. Instead, they're frightened out of their wits. In five years, they'll be making billions off of it and living in fear of the next technological breakthrough.

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