Warner Bros. to team with BitTorrent for movie sales
It looks like BitTorrent has really cleaned up its act ever since it bowed to movie studio wishes and swore to remove pirated content from its search last year. Not only have they managed to send plenty of downloaders elsewhere, but have gotten friendly enough with Warner Bros. to start distributing movies and TV shows via the BitTorrent tech in the US. (Disclaimer: Engadget's parent's parent company is Time Warner, the parent company of Warner Bros. Entertainment.) Just like old Napster vs new Napster, this isn't your father's BitTorrent movie download, since the files will be saddled with BitTorrent's very own DRM tech that won't let you copy the file around, or burn it as a DVD. Luckily, Warner Bros. is claiming that they'll be offering content on the day of its retail availability. On the flip side, it sounds like pricing for TV shows will be similar to that of Apple and Google (though the Reuters mentions $1 per episode, so maybe there is hope for a BitTorrent discount), and DVDs will match retail prices. Seems kind of lame considering the fact that you're saving them bandwidth costs, and obtaining a file that you have less rights to than a traditional disc, but dems the breaks. The service should go live this summer, and provide around 200 titles at launch, including "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and "Babylon 5." BitTorrent says they're also in talks with other studios, but that's all they'll say about that for now.
