Hello HN,
I have been recently exploring the current models of media distribution (music, TV, and film) and wanted to ask a few questions here on HN as I am sure there are people much smarter and more experienced in this area than I am.
"Steam for Movies" would summarize the basic idea that I've been contemplating. The service would allow users to purchase digital copies of movies and it would ideally need to contain the majority of all modern movies (making whatever licensing agreements with movie studios required to distribute digitally). After purchasing a movie, the user's account would "own" the movie and could download it onto any of your devices (a la Steam). Ideally it would also be DRM-free, and the user would have a choice of download formats.
Here are a few of my questions:
Firstly, will movie studios tolerate a DRM free distribution model? The music industry seems to now be okay with DRM-free distribution (iTunes, Pandora with HTML5, etc.). I would assume that the argument would be between those who said that DRM-free means easier pirating and those that said that increased sales would make up for lost sales or that pirating will happen regardless.
Secondly, how does what is happening with UltraViolet [1] affect an idea like this? From a user's perspective, UV was one of the most difficult and complex applications I have used online, so it would be definitely be possible to compete from a UX perspective, but I am not sure if movie studios would be willing to license digital content to another service when there is already a "successful" competitor that contains DRM, etc.
Thirdly, how are such distribution licenses formed? Are they with movie studios directly or someone else? How do would one go about negotiating such licenses?
Finally, what do you think about this idea in general? Is there anything I might be missing or any resources that I should know about?
Thank you for your feedback,
Jacob
[1] http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2012/03/walmarts-starts-dvd-to-digital-conversion-service.ars
P.S. I am a 19-year-old developer who has been thinking about this problem for the past year and a half or so and is looking for some direction on where to go next. Thus, obviously, I do not have any experience in this industry - hopefully there are some experienced people on HN who are willing to share their insight.
