Why Download Movie Services will never beat pirates.

Easy Rider.


Dennis Hopper died today, and Easy Rider is one of my favourite films. I don't own it, and haven't previously copied it from a friend, so it's not in my collection.

I thought I had it on video tape, but I was wrong... I've got Roadside Prophets instead, which is a homage to Easy Rider and has Adam Horovitz (Adrock from the Beastie Boys) in it...

Anyway, it's very cold outside, the video store is ages away up a hill, I'm warm and toasted, and besides, my flatmate has my video store card and she'd in Adelaide at the moment.

So I thought "aha! These movie download services should have it!" So I looked on Xbox, PS3, and bigpond downloads.

Nothing.

Dennis Hopper has died, and they don't have Easy Rider up on their service.*

These systems are meant to be instant and applicable to modern life. Why isn't there a whole heap of Hopper Films in these libraries?

I know if I did go the video store I could get something he's in that I like - Easy Rider, Blue Velvet, Apocalypse Now.

Look at the instantaneous nature of the rest of the web: heaps of people are posting and linking youtube videos to their facebook in tribute to him.

And when I look at the torrents sites, I find it instantly, and with the amount of interest in the film there are thousands of others downloading it, meaning I can grab it within an hour.



This is such a huge wasted opportunity for the Movie Industry as a whole, and also the download services provided by Sony, Microsoft and Bigpond, and if these services want to compete with piracy and traditional retail stores, then they've got to offer something pirates and retail stores do but at a better quality and better price and move to take advantage of the immediacy of the internet.



*EDIT: I did find it in the iPhone Store, but I'm not going to buy it if I can't watch it through my TV. I stream video through my Xbox or PS3 to the TV. I'm not hooked up otherwise, so can't stream Apple bought shows through the house to the TV without first hacking them.

If anyone knows an easy way to do this let me know ;)