MovieLink and Cinema Now’s download purchase services come under more criticism, this time a scathing review from Washington Post tech columnist Rob Pegoraro. He calls them “the most hostile movie-procurement option since the video store in Kevin Smith’s comedy ‘Clerk'” — and notes that he can’t download that movie to own from either. Pegoraro: “They stock far too few movies, charge too much for them, offer them at a quality inferior to any DVD and grossly restrict your use of these purchases.” On the plus side, he notes that as of Monday at least some CinemaNow films can be burned to DVD and watched on any player: adult films from Vivid Entertainment Group.
From a “don’t annoy the customer” perspective, Pegoraro is more impressed with iTunes TV downloads and the streaming TV being offered on AOL’s In2TV and particularly ABC.com. His contention: Hollywood needs to stop looking to Congress for help rebuffing piracy. “Instead, all the industry needs to do is make it easy for law-abiding customers to turn to Web sites that make money for it. Why is this so hard for these companies to grasp?” Good question.
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