Legal and DRM-free Movie Torrents from Sweden
Written by Ernesto on April 04, 2008For most people, Sweden and BitTorrent equals The Pirate Bay. There is more though, Headweb, a new online movie store now offers over 500 authorized and DRM-free movies, which can be downloaded via BitTorrent. True to the BitTorrent philosophy, sharing is rewarded.
At the moment Swedish customers will have to use the official Headweb download manager in order to download files, but support for regular BitTorrent clients might be added later.
The downloaded movies can be played with any media player, and are free of DRM. On top of that, the download manager comes with a built in DVD-burner so you can burn the movies onto a disk and play them with any standalone DVD-player.
One of the interesting things about the service is that it rewards people who share their purchases. That is, people get credits for sharing the downloaded files with other Headweb users.
Peter Alvarsson of Headweb told TorrentFreak: “We believe it’s fair to pay for our users’ time and resources and we give credits back to those that upload to other users. The ratio is 1 credit per 10mb which makes it possible to get a free movie after some 50 GB upload.
“We’ve seen that some users are really good at predicting “hot” movies and earn a lot of credits by keeping their clients running after the download has finished,” Peter added. A win-win situation really, the sharing mechanism saves Headweb bandwidth and server resources, and the users get free downloads.
All movies offered by Headweb are DRM-free, which is great, and quite unique for a movie download service. Not surprisingly, they had a hard time convincing the movie studios to offer their content without access restrictions.
“It has taken us nearly 2 years to convince movie studios that DRM-free downloads are the future,” says Peter “We’re not there yet with everyone but we are getting closer. More studios now start to realize that DRM isn’t consumer friendly and that it has to go.”
Several surveys have shown that a lot of people are willing to pay to download movies as long a there is enough content available, and if the files are high quality and thus DRM-free.
Headweb’s users seem to confirm these findings. “We’ve received lot of feedback from people telling us that they would switch to support legal services completely, if only the services had the same selection,” Peter told TorrentFreak.
In the near future, Headweb will be working on more new features, groundbreaking innovations and more content. em toThey are confident that this will enable them to compete with The Pirate Bay.
Previously: ISP Will Protect File-Sharers From Music Industry Disconnection Threat
Next: Lawyer Who Threatened File-Sharers is Banned For 6 months
53 Responses
interesting…
actually, this is something I definately would pay for.
50Gig upload for one movie seems a bit steep, but this will probably fall as more people use the system. Great news about DRM-Free, High Quality video for download. Haven’t looked at the price’s for the movies. What’s the average?
Also, get the posting system sorted TF. I’m sick of seeing “You are posting too quickly, please slow down.” even though I haven’t posted. I did have a lengthy post but now it’s just this as I couldn’t be bothered retyping it all and trying to remember what I had said.
I can buy DVD movies from shop at that prices…
so if average joe leaves his computer on seeding for a month he gets a free movie that he could’ve downloaded from tpb anyway. how innovative.
The innovation is that it’s legal and is what people want and the movie studios aren’t offering
As much as I wouldn’t like to admit it, this is a very good idea. Living in Sweden myself, I haven’t really got a reason not to use this, if I was willing to pay, that is. :P
This is looking more like the future of legal entertainment distribution. TPB needs competition so that it can get even better, and that at the same time it can get heckled less. (Not that it seems to make a difference anyway!)
There will always be pirates, the ones that are at the cutting edge of innovation, we are the ones actually driving the market forward and evolving the content industry. We will always be here, and whenever the industry catches up, we will be on to the next thing.
I think many of us will be happy with the legal alternatives that will ensue, but there will always remain a small group which will adopt the next *even more* advanced distribution method. This small bubble will grow, with escalating problems for the industry and growing clashes between the content providers and the consumers, just like we’ve seen in the last decade, and then the bubble will burst, and they will catch up…again.
It’s a natural cycle.
They may not like it but get used to it guys, it’s called progress.
I tried this and this is IMO how legal services should be made. I congratulate them for the initiative but they’ll have a hard time convincing people to use it.
I’m not impressed with the credit ratio of 1/5120. That’s not even one free beer per year if I drank ten beers a day. I’m not impressed by customer reward programs anyway. They make us transparent, to say the least. Customer rewards just appeal to our greed of gain instead of sharing is caring. What matters with the file sharing idea is the upload/download ratio, not credits with a company. Well, if DRM-free movies get spread around that’s at least a positive aspect.
Still baffles me this kinda thing wasnt done years ago..
Is it just me or does noone see the huge cash cow sitting in front of the entire industry.. why is this so hard.
Yah Sweden!
Love living here… a bit of crap (mostly from outside influences) but has its own perks like fighting back against the MAFIAA, putting privacy above nearly everything, and REALLY good net connections (am on a 100mb myself.. and its nothing to brag about here… around $60 a month)
Another bonus is, shipping of tShirts from the pirate bay is cheaper :p
http://www.ezee.se/
(.se = Swedish domain)
Ameibo is another swedish bit torrent-service that sort of has the same idea as Headweb. Unfortunately not all of the movies are DRM-free.
You can check them out here:
http://www.ameibo.com/
KserX: “I can buy DVD movies from shop at that prices…”
But you can’t seed those DVDs and then get more DVDs for free. That’s what these guys let you do.
Whats the point getting even more expensive movies then theres already out there in the normal shops? dont praise this yet, its cheaper to buy a movie ticket to most of the movies, some you even get some coke and chips with…
If you want to buy a movie, dont use this service until they reduce the price by 70-80%…. its a rippoff tbh >.<
Nice service! I just signed up to see what it’s about and it seems like movies are between 40 and 100 SEK (100 SEK = about 10 euro = about 17 U$). The content seems a bit shitty now cause only some outback swedish movie companies seem to be offering their movies.. anyway.. good step forward! :) Also, i seem to have gotten 2000 credits for signing up :)))
@ The right price, this is a GREAT idea!
The great thing is that is allows you to do what you actually pay for. You get good quality and the burn to dvd feature. And I can transcode to my ipod etc. Now I dont even have to bother ripping a purchased dvd, i just download it!
This is no fucking alternative. Think I download my movies without beeing a 50 Gig bitch. Nice try, but the idea are stupid and childish. Fuck You!!”
10% bonus is better than any credit card currently offers. If you’re a movie buff and with a seedbox, every movie you download could be legally purchased. Makes think ISPs should get involved and get in on this!
I’ve thought for a while that the way to run an online media store is to model it on BitTorrent and reward users for sharing. Although 50GB is ridiculously steep for anybody used to torrenting, it’s a big step forward and I’m sure the upload requirement will fall soon. It should be possible for an online store to use a fraction of the bandwidth they’d need without p2p and still distribute content amongst users effectively.
too expensive… 1408 costs 16$… No way..
@ 17 The reality is that we all need to support the creators in one way or another.
Besides, the movie studios aren’t so fucking retarted as the music companies.
@ 18 I agree, but from the companies point of view – suppy & demand
It would be nice if this thing could be done at the right price world world. Its a genuine alternative.
good initiative!
[quote comment="331242"]so if average joe leaves his computer on seeding for a month he gets a free movie that he could’ve downloaded from tpb anyway. how innovative.[/quote]
plus its available just a bit faster :P
liars !
having to use proprietary download manager isnt “drm free” per se…..
u lying sweedish weasels ;
btw,is the download manager an open source ??
As far as i know, the movies on Headweb are watermarked with the buyers personal information.
If you for an example make a legal copy of a movie from Headweb, and send it to a friend over MSN(that’s legal fair use in Sweden, and many other countries), and that copy later find it’s way out onto the filesharing networks, the original buyer could be sued for millions in civil court, where demands for evidence are smaller then in criminal court, and the defendant with the most money and experienced usually wins.
Personally i would never purchase anything watermarked.
My CD’s aren’t watermarked, my DVD’s aren’t watermarked, and when i buy files over Internet, there is no reason why my personal information should be watermarked into the files.
The concept of watermarking files in this manor is intimidation, to scare buyers from making legal copies, and using their legal fair use rights.
The worst thing that could happen if you buy a DRM-infected file, is that it does’nt work. 1 dollar lost.
What’s the worst thing that could happen if you buy a watermarked file, it turnes up on the filesharing networks, and the MAFIAA-organisations can connect a persons identity to a file, has already been proved by the RIAA over and over again..
I don’t trust the entertainment industry enough to let my personal information be watermarked into files, do you?
If the entertainment industry trust’s you, why do they watermark the products you buy from them in the first place?
[quote comment="331636"]As far as i know, the movies on Headweb are watermarked with the buyers personal information.
If you for an example make a legal copy of a movie from Headweb, and send it to a friend over MSN(that’s legal fair use in Sweden, and many other countries), and that copy later find it’s way out onto the filesharing networks, the original buyer could be sued for millions in civil court, where demands for evidence are smaller then in criminal court, and the defendant with the most money and experienced usually wins.[/quote]
Trust who you give it to, then.
And if you’re seeding this ‘watermarked’ copy, then it can’t be watermarked as the watermark can’t carry onto the next person, since you’d be getting the person’s info with it who seeded it to you.
Simply, your logic doesn’t work with this system.
I, for one, think this is progress. The industry is realizing that it needs to move forward and by doing this, it’s a step in the right direction.
It takes many steps to walk a mile and even a foot of progress is better than turning around.
Also – fix the ‘posting too fast’ system to read ‘your comment is too long’.
[quote comment="331665"]Trust who you give it to, then.[/quote]
Why should i police my friends?
[quote comment="331665"]And if you’re seeding this ‘watermarked’ copy, then it can’t be watermarked as the watermark can’t carry onto the next person, since you’d be getting the person’s info with it who seeded it to you.
Simply, your logic doesn’t work with this system.[/quote]
The watermark is added by the Headweb Download Manager. The files doesn’t receive their watermark until they are completely downloaded. The part of the file that is seeded between Headweb-users doesn’t include the watermarking.
On the “about us” section it claims to support Windows, Mac and Linux, but the Linux support is “coming”.
Watermarked?!? I knew this was too good to be true. Sorry mates but I find watermarks even worse than DRM. Keep yout shit.
this is fantastic!!
living in sweden, the 50gig rule is not really that steep. most homes have at least 2mb connections, while 8mb and 24mb are not that uncommon.
after checking some of the movie sizes, they are about a dvd, so 4gigs on average for a DL. you’d only be seeding 12 copies or so before you get a free movie, not a bad deal. we all seed already anyway.
only negative is that you can’t use uTORRENT which blows. if they changed that, even i would be on board!!
but good on them for being the first (or close to it)!!
I wanted to try this, but I’ll have wait until they no longer use watermarking.
[quote comment="331855"]I wanted to try this, but I’ll have wait until they no longer use watermarking.[/quote]
as soon as they found a way to stegnograph the info invisibly into the movie,
It says that “some” movies can be watermarked. because some movie studios requires it (can we guess who?). I dont see the problem with it though if I get my movies without other protection mechanisms.
Mike: aren’t watermarks based on steganography?
I would pay, same its not for the UK aswell ): .
PB down? (Holland)
Let’s see. $16 a movie which I can download for free, plus I can get a free one if I upload 50 Gb which on my bandwidth limits would take about 4 1/2 years. Hmm that’s a tough choice ..
Well, I think we can agree that this is not going to be a breakthrough for the movie industry, but they are stating to get the point, and that is very important. This should have been done 7-10 years ago…but nooo, greed is why it didn´t! Hope this gets some kind of success, so they can see that the costumer are in control! Otherwise we´ll keep DL as we have done for a decade :-)
/Pantonamia
[quote comment="331894"]It says that “some” movies can be watermarked. because some movie studios requires it (can we guess who?).[/quote]The only honest solution is to not sell their product. Leave it to TPB and other pirate trackers to fill those demands. Otherwise, legacy requirements such as these watermarks will continue to pollute our lives. Deny it now while there is a revolution.
Cracking their client to not apply WM after the file is downloaded would add another good source of new DVDRIP. Then just to create .torrent and seed.
Thank you Sweden.
Good source anyway.
The way the fiber net is expanding here in Sweden atm 50gb will be nothing to ‘average joe’ in a couple of years. Myself, i seed around 30-35gb/night
This is simply the future of bit torrent
When you do it like pirate bay let me know or like hte cbc did let me know
you gain cheap distribution and tracking stats.
That is to expensive,lets say FOX offered online the first episo from 24 one day before it show on tv, and charge $1.00. Do you know how many millions of click will be in 1 hour? that is money and power out there. But the industry don’t want to use. I think lots of people would like to pay for a nice movie, at a nice price and get something back if you seed as well.
Sounds like the idea of actually USING the internet to it’s full extend finally spreads through the industry… now let’s look how long it takes for a music service like this one to appear, and giving away free music for every 5 – 10 songs you share, or so…
Why is my comment which i made HOURS ago “under moderation”? It only contained some positive comments FFS.
[quote comment="331330"]KserX: “I can buy DVD movies from shop at that prices…”
But you can’t seed those DVDs and then get more DVDs for free. That’s what these guys let you do.[/quote]
Yeah, a free movie for 50gb of your upload bandwidth.
Oh, joy.
@24- Exactly. You don’t deal with the devil no matter how attractive the offer.
This looks more like one-time ad-campaign to me. But any step in the right direction is a step in the right direction. We’ll see…
nice but the prices should be a little cheaper and a free movie at 25gigs instead of 50 gigs would be worth it
50GB uploads to download 5GB isn’t really that much if you live in a city with 100mbit. You could problably manage to upload enought to get 3-4 movies for free each week.
One movie costs around 80-100 swedish krona.
100 kr =
16,52 USD or
10,49 EUR or
8,35 GBP.
Really, back in the days of bootlegged LPs, that was called piracy, and everyone was fine with that. It was just an alternative meaning an officially unauthorized album. File sharing is nothing compared to that and so if they want to call it piracy that’s fine by moi, only don’t try to turn it into something evil. What’s evil is your “business” model and much of your mojo product.
6 references to this post
Responses are closed
All remaining responses will continue to be archived. Use the TorrentFreak forums if you want to discuss something.