Tech Shout!

Warner Bros. has finally realizes the potential of P2P and is trying an experiment service in Germany. Warner Bros is going to sell movies and TV programming at reasonable prices on P2P services in Germany. The P2P service is set to launch in Germany during March with German-dubbed versions of films and is being called In2Movies. It’s being co-developed with Bertelsmann AG and its subsidiary Arvato.

The movie download service is more like BitTorrent rather than Kazaa or Limewire, where users who have already downloaded the file helping out with bandwidth. Warner is using Arvato’s new software GNAB to allow delivery of media content. Warner is using GNAB to strengthen its security so that the risk of its movie being pirated is reduced. Users buying copies of movies through In2Movies will be able to authorize a set amount of computers that the movies will be able to play on, similar to Apple’s iTunes Music Store service.

Warner Bros. In2Movies will be competing with services that provide online access to filmed entertainment in Germany among them an Internet movie-rental service run by Deutsche Telekom AG. In2Movies will also be going up against stores that sell movie CDs and DVDs.

During the first half of 2005 in Germany, 1.7 million Internet users illegally downloaded a total of 11.9 million movies. Research has shown that 20 percent of illegal movie downloads are made on weekly basis. However, 73 percent of all illegal movie downloaders in Germany are interested in utilizing a “paid for” movie download service. If successful, In2Movies will probably be the best solution to stop P2P pirating of copyrighted films.