Headweb

Headweb is one of the first services I have seen that try to distribute movies according to what people wants. The movies are without any copy protection (although they have water marking, which I think is fine). After buying the movie you download it over the Internet using peer2peer technology. You can move it to any device you want, and burn to DVD. Play with whatever software you want. Basically, after buying the movie (the ones and zeroes) you can use the bits in whatever way you want. And you get a bonus if you allow peers in the p2p network.

If we get more of these services, we can start get some competition and see more precisely what service will win. This specific service still costs quite a lot (60-99SEK), and many comments on the article on IDG point out it cost 5SEK to rent a movie. Sure, rent one, but not own one. To own a movie you have to pay more.

When there is a client for MacOSX, I will definitely try this service! Yes, the actual download mechanism is using a proprietary client.