How Hollywood can fight the Darknet

NY Times: Keeping Moviegoers Away From the Dark Side.

Music came first, but now the movie business is facing its own Internet challenge. Hollywood had a few years of breathing room because a movie is such a hefty bag of digital bits that it used to take several hours, if not most of a day or night, to download a film.

Not anymore. Ever-faster networks mean that a movie can be delivered online today in an hour or two, so the Internet traffic in films, illegally distributed, is starting to take off. In fact, the same day the latest "Star Wars" movie opened in theaters last month an online version was posted on a file-sharing site - before being shut down in a federal raid a few days later.

Little wonder, then, that Dan Glickman [pictured above], the new field general in Hollywood's battle against piracy, is awaiting the Supreme Court ruling in MGM v. Grokster, a decision that could come as early as Monday. The case is the latest conflict in years of legal attacks by the music industry against file-sharing systems like Grokster and Kazaa and their users. The court's decision could define the reach of copyright in the Internet era and the liability of file-sharing services. Its impact will be felt equally by the movie industry and the music business. ...

Mr. Glickman has moved the trade association with somewhat surprising speed and force in certain areas, notably enforcement. During his tenure, Mr. Valenti held out the threat of suing individuals for copyright infringement, but he never took that step, which can be portrayed as dragging customers into court. But Mr. Glickman pushed ahead with a flurry of suits against some 200 people, with the latest filed last month. ...

Yet the movie industry, some analysts say, is too intent on fighting these days. "It's a real mistake to focus on suing people so much instead of moving with the technology into the future," said Harold L. Vogel, an independent media analyst.

Hollywood is experimenting with Internet downloading services that charge a few dollars a movie or charge a monthly subscription fee like Movielink, CinemaNow and Starz on RealNetworks. Still, these seem half-hearted efforts so far with a selection that is far more limited than at a neighborhood Blockbuster store or Netflix, the popular mail-order movie rental service.

"My advice to Hollywood is to really start selling online," said Bram Cohen, the 29-year-old programmer who created the BitTorrent software. "They have nothing that vaguely competes with Netflix."

Netflix is investing in developing online distribution technology. The biggest obstacle, said Neil Hunt, its chief product officer, is that it cannot obtain the electronic rights from Hollywood to offer anything like its 45,000-title library of DVD's. "The goal of the studios is to preserve the DVD revenue stream," he said.

Hollywood's leading lobbyist understands the challenge. "It's not enough just to sue," Mr. Glickman said. "The industry has to develop hassle-free, reasonable-cost ways to offer movies over the Internet."

For once, Mr. Glickman is absolutely correct.

Here, unfortunately, Mr. Glickman veers off into the deep end, preparing his pitch to Congress in the event Hollywood loses Grokster.