It’s like the studios all woke up in the last few weeks with the same “Oh yes; the shit is ON” attitude with regards to downloading video. First ABC begins free streaming of several of their TV series, then CBS follows up with their still-developing InnerTube service. Somewhere along the way Cartoon Network got in on the act, and now Warner Brothers is topping everyone with the announcement that they plan to skip iTunes and sell television and movies directly to the public with a modified version of the BitTorrent program! It’ll be interesting to see how they modify the BT tech to make it more user friendly than it is right now, as well as if they’ll do the smart thing and make sure it works cross-platform. The pricing structure seems odd - .99 cents for a TV show, full DVD price for movies - and the fact that the DVDs you’ll be allowed to burn will only play on the comuter that DLed the show on is a pretty idiotic limitation, but it’s still refreshing and heartening to see Hollywood finally beginning to fall in line with the needs of the consumers.

Just last year, Warner Bros. and other studios won a bitter U.S. Supreme Court fight against file-sharing networks that had turned a blind eye to pirating. But as they did with home video a generation ago, the studios are embracing new forms of file sharing as a way to reach new audiences and boost revenue.

“The problem of piracy is getting worse, not better,” said Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, the unit working with BitTorrent. “The way we’re positioning this within Warner Bros. is, let’s take the problem and turn it into an opportunity. If we can convert 5, 10 or 15% of these users into legitimate customers, we think it can have a significant impact.”

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