Audio Video News

Is the movie industry on the verge of losing control of its own products?

Some observers believe so, citing the growing availability of DVD burners and video editing software. Total global market penetration of DVD burners could reach 4.32 million this year from a paltry 300,000 in 1999, according to predictions made by research firm International Data Corporation of Framingham, MA.

Amateur filmmakers have been able to edit and archive their tape recordings using computers and optical discs for a few years now. It's obvious that the line between professional and amateur filmmaking is becoming increasingly blurry. Many independent films are now shot on digital video, with relatively low budgets and surprisingly good results, such as the recent Italian for Beginners and The Anniversary Party.

Apple Computer, the first company to outfit its laptops as portable video-editing suites, has just released its latest generation of PowerBooks equipped with DVD burners, "SuperDrive" devices made by Pioneer Electronics. Add high-speed Internet access to the mix, and it may not take long before commercial DVDs can be copied and shared freely, although the day when that will be as easy as streaming a three-minute pop song is still a long way off. Computer stores are full of video editing software, and a St. Louis–based company called 321 Studios may soon "roll out software that will allow consumers to copy movie DVDs onto blank DVDs," writes Anna Wilde Mathews in a recent edition of the Wall Street Journal.

321 Studios is already embroiled in copyright protection litigation brought by the film industry over its "DVD CopyPlus 4.2" software, which allows users to copy DVDs to CD-Rs. The possibility of a Napster-style debacle has executives like Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) president Jack Valenti running scared. Valenti, who made history by describing the early VCR as the industry's "Boston Strangler," is pushing for legislative and technical barriers that would make copying films difficult for most citizens.

Present technical barriers are pretty impassable for most people. Even if the video content on a commercial DVD can be successfully transferred to another high-density disc—analogous to using the analog output of a CD player to feed the analog input on a CD-R recorder, with its consequent loss of quality—there is no easy way for most consumers to capture a 5.1-encoded soundtrack.

The industry's best protection may be its own DVD pricing policies. DVDs are generally so cheap—under $20 each, and in many cases, under $15—that they are impulse buys for most movie fans. For most folks, the ease and convenience of buying cheap, high-quality pre-recorded DVDs probably outweighs the appeal of high-tech piracy.

It's a solution the music industry should have considered. While file-sharing and CD burning were doubling on a daily basis, the retail price of CDs continued to climb toward the $20 mark. Perhaps luckily for Hollywood, the pattern seems to be just the opposite for DVD.