Monday 26 October 2015
Recently, Popcorn Time, affectionately termed the ‘Netflix for Pirates’, was shut down for good after reports of internal disputes between the developers over money and a looming lawsuit.
Its cousin, Browser Popcorn, is an in-web browser version of Popcorn time that has been shut down twice and revived three times after its 15 year old creator was hit with legal notices from MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America).
One man has set out to take the battle away from these quasi-piracy models by leaving the power of choice in the consumer’s hands, while ensuring that it is fully legal.
Here is what you need to know about WebCinema
The patent for WebCinema was filed on 26 March 2015, to be a website and app online-viewing platform available on all electronic devices that changes the way movies are delivered to the public.
A future central video subscription hub
There are a plethora of video subscription services for us to choose from, including Netflix, HBO Now (currently not available in Australia), Stan, Quikflix, CBS All Access, the recently announced Disney Life and comedy-focussed Seeso.
Netflix now owns 39% of the paid video subscription market in Australia after being available for less than a year, edging Foxtel out from the top spot it held for a long time.
While they pursue a model of easy accessibility, having to switch between Netflix to watch Orange is the New Black, then to HBO Now for Game of Thrones is troublesome and could be streamlined. We need all of these services in the one place.
WebCinema is aiming to streamline that process for movies as a centralised one-stop hub for all movies.
The 3 C’s – Control, convenience and choice
If WebCinema comes to life, it optimises the 3 C’s by doing what Netflix and other video subscription models have been unable to do to date – deliver first-run (new and/or currently released) Hollywood-produced movies to us when they are, well, new and/or currently released.
WebCinema aims to remove the time lag between the release of movies in theatres, to Blu-ray/DVD, then onto streaming services. It puts more control and choice into the hands of the consumers.
This could also plug the leak in revenue of the media companies through solving the issue of privacy by, in the words of President Frank Underwood, giving the “people what they want, when they want it, in the form they want it in, at a reasonable price”.
The quote is at 2:24.
Let us know what you think by tagging us on @lawpath and/or #lawpath.
