Issue Date: October 14, 2001
Click for flicks
Nobody has paid closer attention to the battles over digital music piracy this past year than Hollywood. After all, if songs can be swapped over the Internet, why not films, too? Illegal movie download sites may not be as popular as Napster once was, but they certainly exist.
Don't feel like a trip to the video store? Stay home and download films such as "Drowning Mona", with Neve Campbell, Jamie Lee Curtis and Danny DeVito.
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So it's no surprise Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association of America, announced earlier this year that the big moviemakers were getting in on the action. At least three major studios are ramping up efforts to produce pay-per-view movie download services so consumers can watch flicks with a few clicks of the mouse.
A few sites already offer full-length movies you can download directly to your computer for a small fee. When I logged on recently, SightSound.com was touting pictures such as Ashley Judd's "Eye of the Beholder" and Danny DeVito's "Drowning Mona", reasonably priced at $3.95 for a two-day "rental." CinemaNow.com offers about 250 full-length movies in categories including comedy, action and family.
But cyber-movies are a mixed bag for now. Selections range from mainstream sleepers like this year's "Love, Honour and Obey", with Jude Law, to indie gems and B-list bombs. You'll need at least a 56k modem, but it could take as long as 10 hours to download the movie you choose. It took me an hour on my faster cable modem to get Mel Gibson's "Summer City", his not-exactly-classic 1976 film debut.
By Contributing Editor Rula Razek, editor of the Internet Cool Guide books.
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