Marshall Brain's Blog

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Online Movies

The world does not yet have the movie equivalent of iTunes. But there is some evidence that Movielink is heading in that direction, and it is getting a fair amount of press right now. The deal at MovieLink is that you pay $3 or so to download a movie. The movie can live on your hard disk for up to 30 days (as long as you don't play it), and then deletes itself automatically. As soon as you play the movie, a 24-hour clock starts. You can watch the film as much as you want in the 24-hour window, and then it deletes itself.

The MovieLink model is trying to emulate the Blockbluster rental model, but it is a far cry from what you'ld like -- a cheap way to buy and own forever an electronic copy of a movie. If that's what you want, the only easy way to do it right now is to buy a DVD and use a piece of software from a place like 321 Studios to copy the DVD onto your hard disk.

Another place that is doing the same thing as MovieLink is CinemaNow.

If you are interested in "alternative" films (older stuff, documentaries, B-films, etc.) you can try MovieFlix.