Hollywood announces contest for new ways to distribute and watch movies

Offers grants ranging from $25,000 to $100,000 USD to those with the most promising ideas that focus on areas like “promotion of the legal use of media and deterrence of piracy.”

Looking for “A few good geeks,” Motion Picture Laboratories, Inc (”MovieLabs“), a nonprofit research and development organization based in Palo Alto and founded by the studios in 2005 with a $30 million bankroll, has announced that it is searching for innovative technologies in the distribution and use of motion pictures and consumer media.

The search is two part approach in that it’s launching the MovieLabs Technology Open Challenge, which will provide grants to novel solutions to specific technology challenges facing the movie industry. The Technology Challenge will provide grants to the most promising ideas, with awards ranging from $25,000 to $100,000. Additionally, MovieLabs is accepting general technical proposals from companies, entrepreneurs, laboratory researchers and other technologists interested in support from MovieLabs for development of new technologies around digital distribution of video and consumer media.

Funded by six major motion picture studios with a mission to discover and facilitate the growth of novel technologies, MovieLabs focuses is focusing its efforts and investments in three distinct areas:

• The promotion of the legal use of media and deterrence of piracy
• The facilitation, creation and implementation of innovative technologies in the area of digital distribution
• The exploration of personal networking and connectivity solutions for an improved consumer experience

“MovieLabs was created specifically to foster cutting-edge digital media technologies that may otherwise be orphaned, under-appreciated, or in need of a catalyst,” said Steve Weinstein, president and chief executive officer of MovieLabs. “By kicking off these initiatives, we’re looking to engage entrepreneurs and innovators whose ideas hold the potential to change the motion picture industry.”

The MovieLabs Technology Open Challenge will pose a series of challenges to the industry. The first group of challenges announced today seeks creative solutions in multiple categories, including:

• Remote Content Access Challenge – Provide a new, unobtrusive technique by which consumers can accurately identify themselves digitally in order to access stored content from a remote location
• Remote Multi-Format Transcoding – Find innovative techniques to support multiple resolutions and media formats on a variety of devices without requiring consumers to acquire separate versions of media content for each device
• Content Transformation Detection – Create a new technique for analyzing video to detect and characterize transformations made to the original
• Theatrical Projection Screen – Improve the quality of theatrical projection screens to provide equal performance when used with 2D or 3D digital projection systems
• Hiding of Cryptographic Keys – Find innovative techniques for hiding asymmetric cryptographic keys in software

The Technology Challenge – open to individuals, corporations and university, government, and private laboratory researchers – will provide grants for the most promising solutions, which may range from early-stage ideas to fully developed prototypes or products ready for commercialization. MovieLabs will review submissions and award grants based on adherence to the technical criteria for each challenge, the submission’s ingenuity, and its actual promise of offering a viable new solution to the identified technical obstacle. Submissions for the first group of challenges will be accepted through Sept. 30, 2007, although grants may be awarded on a rolling basis prior to the deadline.

In addition to the Technology Challenge, MovieLabs is welcoming technical proposals of a more general nature for innovative technologies that address MovieLabs’ core areas of focus. Where appropriate, MovieLabs will offer research grants and financial assistance to companies and organizations developing these technologies. Individuals, technologists, start-ups, or other companies with cutting-edge technologies that fall broadly within MovieLabs’ areas of focus should submit a proposal including details about the product or solution, the current market need and potential deployment opportunities, plus background information on the team behind the proposal. Submissions will be accepted and evaluated on an ongoing basis.

Now I’m not sure about how I feel about all of this in regards to its underlying intent which is to deter file-sharing by seeking out new technologies and methods of offering consumers choice of content and distribution methods but, considering that Hollywood is actually trying to figure out ways to do just that, essentially offer consumers what they want, it makes me less reticent to support it.

The Remote Content Access Challenge, which seeks to “Provide a new, unobtrusive technique by which consumers can accurately identify themselves digitally in order to access stored content from a remote location,” is an example of Hollywood trying to give consumers what they want, actually trying to innovate rather than degradate. “Why, if you’re in a hotel, shouldn’t you be able to access your movies on the TV in your room?” Weinstein asked. Exactly, why shouldn’t we? Instead of the RIAA’s constant “you can’t,” it seems here we have a Hollywood-backed project that says nothing but “why can’t we?”

It really comes down to 3 things in the minds of consumers when it comes to content distribution: price, selection, and availability. If a platform charges too much, offers poor content selection, or won’t play on a device of your choosing, then it will ultimately fail. This process of satisfying consumer demand however, is a far healthier response by the movie industry than anything that we have seen from the music industry to date. Rather than hide their heads in the sand, Hollywood has watched the music biz slide into irrelevance and lose billions in the process, a feat it has no intention of following.

Hollywood, to its credit, has seemingly heard the cries of “geeks” and non-geeks alike who have made plain their desire to watch movies whenever and wherever they like at a fair and decent price. Piracy is considered to be the answer to the failings of the movie industry to meet these demands, just as all other black market “goods” are simply answers to the failings of other aspects of the marketplace. If you cant get what you want at a fair price then you seek out alternatives, and in recognizing this, the movie industry appears willing to come up with alternatives that satisfy consumer demand.

Is Hollywood actually looking to give consumers what they want? I hope the RIAA’s taking notes.

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/tech_news/Hollywood_announces_contest_for_new_ways_to_distribute_and_watch_movies’;

Looking for more stuff to watch or download?
3 Quick Ways to Watch Movies for FREE!
3 quick ways to watch TV shows for FREE
BitTorrent torrent sites & search engines
Azureus – A Beginner’s Guide to BitTorrent Downloading
Watch The Simpsons, The Office, Jackass, South Park, Lost, X-Men, and More, On-Demand For Free

Related Posts

1. 3 Quick Ways to Watch Movies for FREE!
2. Digital Freedom Campaign Begins, Claims Right to Download Movies, Music
3. P2P Innovative Announces the Launch and Availability of the IP2P Network
4. Hollywood seeks iTunes for film
5. Hulu, Great New Place to Watch TV Shows and Movies for FREE