Apple has finally launched movies films on iTunes in the UK (and Canada). Can we expect to see piracy over here decrease?

To say torrents and other P2P services are of great concern to the major studioes would be an understatement, but will Apple’s film service show retailers the light? The iTunes store has made buying music easier than pirating it and the cost is fairly reasonable too. Traditionally illegal downloaders would ’steal’ pirated music simply because it was so darned easy to. Have you ever been into the CD department in WHSmith? It ain’t fun. If you know what you want, just search for the torrent and chances are you can find what you’re looking for and download it within minutes. But when the iTunes store opened up more than 5 years ago, buying became easier than pirating. That’s pretty unusual in the history of piracy.

Now that other retailers such as Tesco are beginning to show signs of catching up with the iTunes Store, it has taken another huge leap ahead by offering films to rent or download. Again, it will be easier to rent a film than to boot up your torrent client. And who knows, that niggle of guilt you feel may even disappear. And for those of us who aren’t savvy with downloading online, who better than to introduce than the tech company with the most intuitive software and hardware?

It’s not just the consumers who benefit, it’s the studios too. Certain commentators aren’t too concerned with the better known leviathan studios, commenting that they make enough money anyway and it’s their own fault for not heeding lessons from the music industry rahter than trying to push back the online download tide. This maybe true but piracy is still a concern irrespective and even moreso to the smaller independant filmhouses we foster of here in the UK. As legal downloads become easier and as other competitors come online and we see some healthy competition, will we see the number of pirated films decrease. Maybe not, but at least someone is seeing rewards from online downloads now.

Tags: Apple, iTunes Store, p2p