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Video on Demand From the Public Library
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Wed Feb 07, 2007 03:32 PM
from the doing-it-for-free dept.
from the doing-it-for-free dept.
ye oulde library lover writes "In light of the recent story about Wal-Mart and movies on demand, readers should know there is a free service available from some public libraries that lets you download movies and tv shows. The service is just beginning, so selection is pretty mediocre, but the sponsors, Recorded Books and PermissionTV, make some big promises. If your library ponies up the dough for the top service, you will be able to download movies on the same day as their dvd release. All you need is a library card. You can see one of the early adopters — Half Hollow Hills Community Library in the library's blog. Look for MyLibraryDV."
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Wal-Mart Offers Up Downloadable Movies 217 comments
An anonymous reader slipped us the link to a C|Net article on another downloadable movie offering, this time from retail giant Wal-mart. Stinging from their loss to Netflix in the online DVD rental business two years ago, they are coming out swinging with this service. They've made arrangements with all six major Hollywood studios, and (the article theorizes) will likely have highly competitive prices. With Apple's dominance of this particular market, there is still no guarantee whether Wal-mart will have any success with this program. The biggest problem, commentators note, is that there is no guarantee Wal-mart's service will draw customers into their stores: the issue that ultimately caused them to scuttle the DVD rental service. What do you think of a major retailer getting into movie download business? Will the company be able to outmaneuver Apple and Netflix the same way it has done with other retailers in the past?
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Video on Demand From the Public Library
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Doesn't this exist already? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Doesn't this exist already? (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Thursday February 21 2002, @04:37PM)
Yes, funny thing, Libraries have been given special permission to lend things.
You should go to one some time.
HUntington Library in NY here (Score:4, Informative)
The service is a disservice (Score:5, Interesting)
The main problem is this the company and the librarians and the broshures they hand out say it's for MP3 players. well it's not: it only plays on WMA 10 compabtible devices. This means no ipods, very few Mp3 players even the ones that play the older WMA files. It won't play on a mac and it won't play on linux computers. And it won't even play on older windows machines that don't have WM player 10. Sure you can download it but is granny gonna do that?
Also the way the check out works is that you can check it out once for two weeks, renew it once for two weeks, and then you can never check out the same book a second time, making it essential to have multiple fake library IDs if you want to get through some long book.
Now given that the libraries have fixed budgets I'm sure this resulting in the purchase of fewer CDs . The 95% of the world that does not have a WMA 10 compatible "MP3" player is subsidizing this.
If you want to use it you have to not only buy a WMP 10 compaitble Music player, but now you also have to use some new music management system different from the one you use for your other players to transfer the audio. You have to have a windows computer too.
I guess the most galling thing to me was that librarians kept showing me the printed broshure from the company saying it worked with any Mp3 player and insisting I must be mistaken.
yep (Score:2)
(http://www.atomjax.com/)
Yeah, it's called the internet.
Why is it for individual libraries? (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.kibbee.ca/)
I Love Libraries (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.threesquirrels.com/)
Entertainment, information, fun, enlightenment, all for free.
Plus, even in these Internet days, you can still phone the library with a question and they will look up the answer!
Our local library has a really amazing collection of DVDs, both recent and classic and foreign films. Kind of like NetFlix without paying a monthly subscription fee.
It is inconceivable that one could create such an institution these days. No politician would ever - EVER - support the idea today. Can you imagine how the MPAA or RIAA would fight to prevent the free loans of their products? Could book publishers be far behind?
Libraries - gotta love them.
A good idea (Score:2, Interesting)
Response to castr troy (Score:2, Informative)
Such a deal (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://derekl1963.livejournal.com/)
Great. Now my local library, already facing a funding crunch to purchase non fiction books... Has yet another way to waste scarce cash on entertainment. Libraries are supposed to supplement Blockbuster and Netflix, and do the things they won't because there's no money in it - not compete with them.
Libraries in their race to become relevant - are becoming meaningless.
How long can this last? (Score:1)
Slashdotting a public library's website? (Score:5, Funny)
I like the idea but... (Score:3, Interesting)
(http://www.dweasel.com/)
Why does one need "library card"? (Score:2)
(http://cafepress.com/phototravel?pid=5934485)
With physical media (books, CDs, DVDs) the card is an important proof, that one has no outstanding items before she/he can borrow more.
Why can't the Internet downloads be anonymous? To make sure, only local residents can view the material?
A silly restriction in the Internet age — instead of spending money on each library's card-verification software, web-server hardware et al., they should've hired Akamai or someone like that to carry the stuff for everyone.
Would've been far better and likely cheaper too, especially if "Akamai" (or whoever) could be persuaded to give the service a discount...
Windows only? (Score:2)
(http://www.dpbsmith.com/)
Yep, Windows only. [permissiontv.com].
Bastards.
Awe, so close (Score:2)
(http://www.outpimp.com/?x=481655731 | Last Journal: Thursday December 08 2005, @12:13PM)
Please enter your library card number.
I looked for the 'signup now' button on their website, didn't see one.
Called, they told me I'd have to come in and apply in person.
Doh! Quite a drive from alabama just for a library card!!!!!
Anyone live near happy hollow hilly library that can run in and pretend to be me?
Libraries are responding to their customers (Score:5, Interesting)
No, libraries are responding to their customers. The customer is always right because the customer knows what he or she wants. And the customers of public libraries (who pay the taxes) want nearly everything.
During the VHS/betamax wars, the customers pressured libraries to provide this medium. The libraries responded. When books on tape became popular with a certain segment of the population, they asked the library to provide them. Libraries responded. When DVDs and CDs came along, customers asked libraries to provide them. Libraries responded. When the Internet became popular, customers asked libraries to provide free access. Libraries responded again. In many cases, the ONLY free access available is at your local public library.
Libraries responded to these new types of information pretty well, I think, while still providing a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction books, children's books, storytimes, programming, reference service, interlibrary loans, holds, local history collections, genealogy departments, classes, and all the traditional things libraries have historically done.
This particular service we've been discussing is new. There are only a couple of offerings. Yup, they are only windows. That's because, dear readers, the vast majority of people are not at all interested in Linux, slashdot, or whatever arcane OS is popular with geeks. It is simply not relevant. When someone comes up with a service that caters to all at once, libraries will get it. Many libraries are well aware of the MP3, iPod issues on some of these new services. But they are not going to wait until they've satisfied 100% of potential users until they implement, particularly on a trial basis, these new services. When LIBRARIES tell vendors their offerings are not good enough, the vendors will change. It happens every time. Libraries also generally have a vast array of "internet accessible" information you are not going to find with Google. This includes almost all periodicals and indexes, both popular and academic. Just go to your local library's web site and look at the list of "online resources." It's incredible. From JSTOR to Information Access, Proquest to Morningstar, Business Reference to Academic Index. That's a vast amount of information available.
If you don't use your local library, that's okay. They are quite busy enough already. I don't physically visit my library either; I do it all on-line. But criticizing libraries because they respond to their customers is crazy. If they didn't, they would already be gone. Lots of the criticism here is of organization that do NOT respond to their customers (e.g. Nvidia). You can't have it both ways.
"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them." -Mark Twain
if it's broke FIX IT! (Score:2, Interesting)
almost a great idea (Score:1)
My wife would love to be able to download content instead of drive to the library, she timeshifts books on tape like mad because there is a waiting list for most things. You might get nothing for many weeks, then get 5 or 10 come up all at once. They only way to be able to listen to everything she wants to is to timeshift. If the same waiting lists apply to this online system, and the DRM prevents timeshifting, then the service would be completely useless to her. Also, she sometimes gets items to preview for appropriateness for my son, so if the can't be checked out again, this also wouldn't work, though I guess they could be checked out again under my son's card, but then the waiting list applies yet again. He also has homework and extracurricular activities so sometimes reading/listening to a long book in 2 weeks is simply not possible, in rare cases even the extra 2 week extension would not be enough. Of course, timeshifting "hard" media is a still a huge gray area, but advanced DRM should be able to know if your are actually playing the content and extend your checkout time by however long you aren't playing it. "2 weeks" is simply not useful, but maybe "2 full playbacks" might be, with no time restriction at all.
Agreement for foreign language training too (Score:2)
already online audio books and ebooks (Score:2)
Interesting use of the word "free" (Score:1)
If you have you cant copy it to your mobile media device to watch it during the commute
If there are restrictions on my freedom to use it the way I want to
Our public institutions should not be supporting corporate agendas, like "you must run Microsoft".
Re:Library? (Score:4, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Saturday October 27, @04:36PM)
Either way, they continue to function as a repository of recorded media, be it printed or otherwise.
Re:Library? (Score:2)
(http://communitycolor.com/ | Last Journal: Monday July 16, @12:38PM)
IMHO, public libraries should be concentrating on building up resources within the community. Subscribing to an entertainment resource simply saps taxpayers dollars out of the communtiy and into the entertainment industry. I could see great value in public libraries building up large electronic data stores on an intranet. Subscribing to a movie download service simply puts the library in unfair competition with other local entertainment venues.
Re:public libraries (Score:2)
On Sunday afternoons, we open the doors and fling ourselves out of the way to avoid the stampede. By 20 minutes after we open, all our public computers are filled, and they stay that way until we close. Our tables are packed with tutors and people working on group projects, the children's department is a sea of small, moving rugrats and their parents, and the phones ring off the hooks. We have people who come in every day and sit and read the newspapers and magazines in our reading nooks, and our silent study area has days that it's filled to overflowing (5 tables, 8 chairs with attached writing arm, and 8 carrels).
We sometimes accept volunteers in the Computer Center if they want to help out a few hours a week and we think they'll be a good fit to help the public with some of the very basic tasks there, like "How do I get to my next email message?". After four weeks of volunteering, one IT student told me, "I never knew libraries were like this."
It would, of course, help if our funding reflected our increased usage, but since many people seem to think libraries are outdated, it can be difficult to get that funding. Since most library funding is done on the local level, libraries in poor or rural areas are often particularly hard hit, hence why some libraries may be seen to be thriving and others struggling. But for all the talk of Google putting me out of a job, it isn't happening yet. (Hell, last Thursday I helped someone with his Java 2 homework.) It's simply giving me more ways to reach out to my patrons.
Now to wander back to the larger topic at hand... Our patrons would LOVE this service. We have huge waiting lists for the new releases, which we just can't afford to purchase in large quantities. A deal similar to the deals with some of the audiobook vendors we have where unlimited numbers of patrons can download movies would be awesome. It wouldn't be a copyright violation, as the library would be paying the fee to the vendor, which has presumably reached an agreement with the distributor to offer the movie that way. In other words, the movie dudes would have agreed to the setup. I'm pretty sure it would have the same hideous DRM problems we currently have with downloadable audiobook files of proprietary file formats, but if that's the only way to get a service, then I'd take it.
I should note that this would actually be done on a county-wide level. All the libraries in the county kick in for services like that and share the rewards, and each library would continue their own physical purchasing of movies as usual. This would really help out all the libraries in the county, as those who have the equipment to download and watch the movie do it that way, shortening the wait list from maybe 500 people to 350 on its release date.
I can't see our consortium getting this in the next year (we're still fighting with our audiobook downloads, darn those varying requirements!), but I can certainly see how it could be a valuable service. Of course, I can say that since I have absolutely no idea what the cost is. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.