Rumored 'iTunes Replay' service won't launch soon according to report

By on Aug 8, 2011 at 10:00 PM
General August 8, 2011

Apple’s upcoming “iTunes Replay” service is indeed in the works, but the company has yet to sign “cloud agreements” with at least four of the top-six film studios in Hollywood that are necessary in order to launch the service, CNET News reports. As such, the site calls earlier reports that suggested an imminent launch premature. Apple is reportedly working on a service that will allow iTunes users to stream and re-download movies purchased through iTunes. Such a service would require Apple to sign new licensing agreements with motion picture studios in order to secure the appropriate rights that would allow Apple to serve content from the cloud and to multiple devices. According to CNET News, negotiations for these rights could “drag on for months.” The report also mentions a possible hurdle for Apple: HBO. HBO has agreements in place that grant it exclusive digital distribution rights to new movies from three of the six major film studios — 20th Century Fox, Universal and Warner Bros. — for a certain period of time. HBO’s deals have caused problems for streaming services in the past, and it looks like Apple could be the latest victim.

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  • http://profiles.google.com/wesbenterprise Wesley Barnett

    I bought the movies… Apple is willing to give away the bandwidth to let me watch it again… why do we have to get permission from the studios again?

    • Anonymous

      Dear **AA, I pirate because it’s convenient and it’s better than what you offer, not because it’s fucking free.

      Hulu? I pay for that shit.
      Redbox? I pay for that shit.

      Give me a reasonable flat rate to stream what I want without six months of commercials and I will give you my money. Continually dick me around and continue to not get any of my money. It’s really that simple. Going after the 0.1% of pirates who will never buy is alienating the ??% (I think it’s sizable) of pirates who don’t want to sit through 15min of commercials for the movie that they just fucking bought.

      • Anonymous

        I don’t agree with the studios, but you can’t use that to justify stealing. You’re not entitled to the content. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it.

        If you paid for DVD, I have no moral issue with downloading a digital copy of the file “illegally”, as I do not believe it is illegal, however. 

      • Anonymous

        I’m not attempting to justify it. I have no qualms about going to the movies, or buying movies, or buying games, or any of that. I’m merely explaining that there are different reasons for pirating, and that treating everyone like the degenerate 0.1% that will never pay for anything is a waste of time and resources, to say nothing of the fact that their PR is going to be shit until… well, until the end times.

  • Anonymous

    It would be nice if Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, etc. teamed up to play hard ball with the  studios. I’m not a lawyer by any means, but common sense seems go contrary to the BS the studios claim. Common sense says that if you BUY a movie, you should have the right to re-download it if the seller offers such a service. And why on earth does this have anything to do with HBO, which involves NOT buying movies (it makes more sense for Netflix to have to step around HBOs agreements). 

    Studios would have you believe that when you “buy” a movie, you don’t really buy it: you merely pay for the right to watch it in the specific medium, and only as long as the studio allows you to. They’d have you believe it’s illegal to rip your DVDs to your computer for personal use (nope, you have to buy a digital copy too). 

    Companies can always claim things are illegal, and that their TOS are binding, that copyright is on their side. It would be nice if someone equally big pushed back and challenged these claims; I’d bet they don’t stand up, or you’d see an amendment to the DMCA.

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