Enter Film!

Until recently the world of film has been immune to the problems that have beset the music industry. Film, comprising of both sound and images, makes large files when digitised onto a computer. The cost and time involved in storing and transmitting these films has means that trading film files over the Internet is beyond the resources of all but the most determined web-user. But in the same way that the technological advances of MP3 shrunk music files, so similar advances offer the ability to do the same for film files. Technology, it seems it catching up with Hollywood. Not everyone is happy about this, and many in the traditional film industry are concerned that a Napster-like system for films would ultimately stop purchasing cinema tickets, Videos or DVDs, Vince Van Petten, executive director of the Producers Guild of America remarked; "You have a serious, serious problems when it becomes easy to download movies. That's why we are relying so heavily on digital rights management and security." Unlike the music industry, at least the film industry has some benefit of foresight - the can see the technology advancing upon them. Though they are quick to point out differences between the industries, Vince Van Petten again, "There is difficulty in comparing the recording industry and the movie industry. It is so important to sell that first use for movies for the economics model of the industry."

Enter Div X!

So what types of technology are giving Hollywood such a headache? One of the front-runners is DivX. Originally written based on the Windows Media Codec (bit of software that compresses and decompress the footage). The DivX codec author claims that Microsoft made him do it, because a new version of Windows Media Player failed to play some footage he'd compressed using an earlier piece of Microsoft software - in the solution to the compatibility problem DivX was born. In an interview with Salon the author states, "I set the information free...It only took about a week." Sounds incredible that one person in a week could create such a potential threat to the film industry, as Salon remarked; "One week, one program and a potential revolution in digital video. DivX shrinks video to about a fifth of its original size, making it possible to download a full-length movie from the Net to your hard drive in less than an hour."

Forward to the Future

DivX is seeking a different route to some MP3 companies, as it develops the technology it is also developing the links with the industry to ensure all distribution is legal. Users may have a different story to tell, the download rate of the new legal version of DivX has been far, far less than that of the un-regulated version. In a music industry parallel, when the authors of the Secure Digital Music Initiative invited hackers to break their copyright protecting software - the hackers did and trashed it utterly. What does this technology means to filmmakers? For independent filmmakers, access to Napster style systems could both provide distribution and income. This income may come via payments from a membership scheme, where users of the system pay a flat fee and artists who contribute get a slice of this pie. Maybe the future for may creative art forms, film included, lies in distribution models that are at odds with the way Hollywood or the Music Industry want to do business?

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