Or why not just connect via wifi and download a film off iTunes etc. Most people would sort this out before they get to the airport...
Films-on-USB kiosks come to airports
Travelling to the US this summer? Take your Android tablet or Windows laptop with out and you may be able to grab a movie or two on USB stick for the flight home. The oddly named Digiboo this week began rolling out kiosks at US airports which allow travellers to buy or rent one or two films which are copied onto a USB Flash …
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Friday 16th March 2012 10:40 GMT Bakunin
DRM? Will not buy.
Well good luck to them, but I certainly wont buy a film with DRM (or rent one for that matter) and I encouraneg friends not to either.
So with the purchased films what happens if I want to watch it on another device? Or I do a reinstall? Or either of those two if the company goes under?
Rent or buy? With DRM you're always renting until the company decides otherwise.
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Friday 16th March 2012 17:14 GMT Christian Berger
Re: DRM? Will not buy.
The point is, renting a computer file simply doesn't make any sense. Having a "renting" offer only means that this will foster piracy from people who "rent" the film in order to remove the DRM.
It's wrong to sustain business models which collide with reality, and it's wrong to lie to content creators that DRM works and is advantageous to them.
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Friday 16th March 2012 10:54 GMT leeeeeb
You can tell this was invented and pitched before the studio DRM requirements were fully realised. Impulse buy a movie straight onto a memory stick at the airport, great idea. Introduce an element of DRM with online activation, and you instantly lose customers and create a sizeable customer support issue.
In fact even without the DRM, would it not be more convenient to do this by integrating it with the terminal wifi? Add some NAS storage and a web shopfront to the access points frontpage, and flyers could purchase and download whilst sat waiting to board.
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Friday 16th March 2012 11:13 GMT Captain Underpants
Good idea, though I wouldn't bet on the average airport Wifi deployment having been designed to support even local high-bandwidth transfers of the sort that this would involve (assuming 700-1500MB per film and a user uptake of >1 user per 30-minute period).
Same, only more so, goes for using terminal wifi to get a film from iTunes (unless the airport has some sort of amazing backbone plugged straight into an Apple datacentre).
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Friday 16th March 2012 17:20 GMT Christian Berger
Why not go a step further?
Well in fact why not just have a similar arrangement TV stations have, just allow them to "broadcast" movie for everyone to record. Essentially just setting up a NAS box somewhere and allowing people who are in the room, to download those movies for free. Make it some kind of complimentary service to premium customers inside your lounge.
Since there is no DRM to pay, and no individual licenses to be managed, this could be very cheap. A europe-wide broadcast of a movie often costs only double digit sums, so something like that could be very cheap.
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Friday 16th March 2012 11:11 GMT Captain Underpants
DRM for rentals? well, alright.
For purchased files? At $15 a go? You're having a %^&*ing laugh, especially given that most larger airports (of the sort where this scheme is likely to be feasible) will have tax-free shops with an HMV/Zavvi or whatever where you can probably get an optical-media copy of the same film for the same price or less.
Once again, a good idea ballsed up by moronic industry thinking. *sigh*
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Friday 16th March 2012 18:02 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Too Do List
I'm not worried, they might be able to get a bit of a stranglehold on the internet, but they haven't got a chance against Sneakernet.
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Friday 16th March 2012 11:29 GMT Lee Dowling
Or I could just buy a DVD before I go.
No DRM. No Internet activation. Can copy to hard drive, USB, or just carry the disc (Region restrictions a slight inconvenience and nothing more). Permanent "ownership". Some resale value. I can change laptop whenever I like without losing the movie.
And probably quite a bit cheaper.
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Friday 16th March 2012 12:26 GMT Gordon Fecyk
Corporate notebooks + non-admin = no sale
No good IT department would permit staff to take company property and install unauthorized software on it, including whatever DRM this kiosk system uses.
Here's the evil part: Said staff would then call from the airport to their IT department helpdesk. "I'm sorry, Director of Whatever, company computer policy Charter X Part Y prohibits employees from installing unauthorized softtware." And then I'd be out of a job just because I was doing my job.
So thank-you, Digiboo, for becoming a possible source of IT unemployment.
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Friday 16th March 2012 16:30 GMT Anonymous Coward
"Travelling to the US this summer? Take your Android tablet or Windows laptop with out and you may be able to grab a movie or two on USB stick for the flight home."
Let me fix that for you:-
"Travelling to the US this summer? Take your Android tablet or Windows laptop with out and after having it data raped on the way in, you may be ripped off buying a DRM infested movie for the flight home."