Audio Video News

Expect exciting news about online movie retailers soon. Open Market has been accepted by almost all the major movie studios and many retailers as a way to make download movies accessible to more users, and protect the studios against illegal piracy.

Notably missing from the list are Apple and the Walt Disney family of studios, who prefer the iTunes/Fairplay scheme that forces all users through the iTunes interface.

What's so cool about Open Market?

Technically, Open Market is a framework of policies, software, and services that allows interoperability of DRM (Digital Rights Management copy protection) and various formats, as opposed to each supplier having their own format that's not compatible across all platforms.

Open Market will have another player besides the movie studios and retailers.  A component of Open Market will allow consumers to register playback devices and movie rentals or purchases to make sure they all play nice together. iTunes users will recognize this procedure: Users register their PC, TV, mobile player, etc.,  and any movie rented or purchased can be watched on a registered device, but in this case, more than one retailer and playback brand can be used.

If I don't have to worry if I've purchased my movie from Amazon.com or MovieLink, or I want to watch it on my laptop or TV, life is good. If I paid good money for it, why can't I watch it where I want? -Leslie Shapiro

Tech Crunch