Launched in September 2005 by four movie enthusiasts in Grenoble, the online platform
Cinézime , which specialises in independent movies, has managed to convince some producers to sell their movies without DRMs (in
Dimberton). This push for DRM-free movies mirrors the developments in the French online music market. In January, some independent music labels have started to sell their music without DRMs on platforms such as
Fnacmusic.com and
Virginmega.fr (see story in
French-law.net).
DRM-free alongside DRM movies The idea behind the company’s decision to try DRM-free distribution is best summed up by Orna Ghenassia, founder and manager of Cinézime, who is “convinced that ultimately a majority of movies will become DRM-free”. “DRMs do not stop piracy. However, they hinder the development of VOD. By unlocking the movies we open our catalogues [notably] to Mac users” she explains (in
Puel).
Around a hundred movies or about 40% of the catalogue are DRM-free. The absence of DRMs means that those movies, unlike those using Windows DRMs, cannot be rented but only sold.
Before downloading such DRM-free movies users must accept a license agreement which stresses they can use this movie only within their circle of friends and family members and cannot distribute it to other persons. This is “in order to protect the rights of authors who trust you” the license states.
Free-on-demand financed by online advertising 30 movies are made available for free. These movies generate revenues through advertising on Cinézime’s website and the revenues are then shared with copyright holders (in
Champeau).
Great flexibility for rightholders For Orna Ghenassia “the copyrightholders have the choice of three types of commercialisation: advertisement-based, fee-based with or without DRMs.” She also explains how “at first people were reluctant [to the idea of DRM-free distribution] but the opening of the music market [to DRM-free files] has changed peoples minds.” (in Puel)
Will this DRM-free model be successful? What about iTunes? Orna Ghenassia explains that it is still too early to say whether the choice made in earlier this month to drop DRMs had an impact on their sales (in Champeau).
What is sure though is that this experiment shows that independent content producers (first in music, then in movies) are embracing a DRM-free business model. It will be interesting to see whether this experiment will be successful enough to sway the record labels and movie majors to drop DRMs too.
Also, it is putting pressure on Apple to open its iTunes store to DRM-free content from independent producers. So far, Apple has adopted the DRM-only approach favoured by big multinationals and refused to distribute independent productions. However, in his February ‘
thoughts on music’, Steve Jobs (the CEO of Apple), faced with regulatory threat in Europe, declared he would push for DRM-free distribution. Jérôme Roger of the SPPF which represents independent labels had, in response,
urged Jobs to open iTunes to independent and DRM-free music. This request could now be extended to independent movies.
Independent producers would greatly benefit from having access to the iTunes juggernaut. However, Apple’s entry in the market for independent productions could threaten smaller online distributors such as Cinézime, which ultimately could become victims of the success of their DRM-free strategy.
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