Anyone heard of or used Zediva?

[Bill V]

Anyone here heard of or used Zediva? (Yes, I know its name sounds like the latest pharmaceutical for ED, but it's not.)



Sounds like an interesting concept--it'll be interesting to see how it holds up legally...

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Bill V,



I suspect, just like Netflix, Blockbuster, Redbox, Comcast, AT&T U-Verse, Amazon, and others, the company providing the Zediva paid service enters into contractual obligations with studios and other content providers to pay them back a royalty for each movie rented, or has some similar agreement.



You are right, though, that if they don't do that, then there would be legal issues. If, they DO do that, and I would think they would have to, then there should be no legal issues.



Also, as for the concept, this is in action on many sites on the web, by many providers. Though, a $1 rental (as championed by Redbox) is pretty novel in the online streaming rental model.



Thanks for the post.



TJR

 

[Bill V]

TJR, streaming content over the web from electronic files exists in many locations--but this is the first I've heard of physical DVD players being used to get around thestudio royalties. Are you aware of this existing elsewhere?



And it's my understanding that with physical DVDs, the studios' cut comes at point of disc purchase. After that, there legally doesn't need to be any further payment. (I could easily be wrong here--please correct me if that's the case.)

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Bill,



I should have reda the whole thing. <blush>



Yes, that will likely be legally challenged.



Netflix and Redbox do enter into licensing with some of the bigger studios and on the bigger titles. They do this to get better than retail pricing on the DVDs they purchase. Also, that is the reason that if you ever rent from Blockbuster, Netflix, or Redbox, many of their titles have the word "Rental" stamped on them, to further distinquish that the DVD in question was sold for rental only.



What Zediva is doing is taking a commercially licensed product sold explicitely for use by the consumer, and with expressed prohibition of duplication AND retransmission, and essentially, retransmitting it. That is not legally.



It is likely that they will get shut down, or at least get a cease and desist, if they haven't already.



Thanks, and I will attempt to read more completely next time.



Updated link below: They will get slammed!





TJR

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Oh, and Bill,



Cablevision won an appeal against something somewhat similar and found a loop-hole in the retransmission issue. What they did was they assured compliance in their remote DVR storage such that they would guarantee that a subscribers recorded programs were stored in physical storage that is essentially owned (rented) by the subscriber, and seperate from other subscribers. This meant that there were no shared copies of programs, and if 10,000 subscribers each recorded American Idol, then they had to store 10,000 identical copies of American Idol on their systems.



Now, IF, Zedvia could develop some mechanism of assurance that the DVDs that they retransmit are owned, actually owned by the subscribers and that they are simply acting as a warehouse and distribution center, then they would have their loophole. But, that would essentially require some type of a complex debit and credit scheme. For example, I could purchase a copy of "The Fighter" for $19.99 through their system; then I have it available for playout from their remote DVRs for 24 hours; and at the end of that period I get refunded or credited $18.00. Thus, from the POV of the consumer, they pay $1.99 for a 24 hour rental, but from the POV of the provider there is a purchase. The middle-man (Zediva) deals with the buyback. The legal question is can they then resell for another $19.99 a previously returned copy of "The Figher"...I don't see why not.



There are probably other loopholes.



Most of this just shows the relative absurdities of our IP and Copyright Laws when it comes to digital media.



P.S., I live and breathe this very stuff in my "day job."

 

[Bill V]

I'm far less of an expert than you likely are, but my gut says that this should fly.



From my perspective, it seems like a mixture of Redbox, where you rent the DVD for a set period of time for $1; and Slingbox, where you transmit the programming you're legally entitled to in one location (home for Slingbox, Zediva's base for Zediva) to your actual remote location (your computer for Slingbox, your home or computer for Zediva).



Based on that, if both Redbox and Slingbox are legal, it would seem that this, too, should be legal...



Either way, yes, it is an interesting proposition, and should be interesting to follow in the courts...

 

[Thomas Rogers]

But Redbox doesn't retransmit licensed content so they aren't breaking the retransmit laws. Also, Slingbox is legal as it avoids the retransmitting issue under the "fair use" laws. Fair use now allows for the recording and place-shifting of OTA ( over the air) content as well as content which I have subscribed to...as long as you don't retransmit to others. It is why you can legally backup a personally owned DVD, or rip it, or transmit stuff through a Slingbox to yourself at a remote location.



TJR

 

[Kevin Lang]

They can only serve a limited number of people at a time, as each concurrent user requires his own DVD player at their HQ, and they will have a limited movie selection, as they said that they'll only pick DVDs that will have high rental demand.



Understandable, since with their business model they'll be buying hundreds of dvds for each movie they rent out.



I don't see it being very useful, at least not to me. It's Redbox online. I'm sure it will be sued into oblivion, even though it buys the DVDs of the movies, which gives the studios $ and inflated numbers of DVD sales.



Worse is that this is just another reason for major ISPs to continue to try and push bogus data caps onto us, as services like this will continue to undercut their cable TV revenues as well as their pay-per-view/onDemand offerings. Comcast & AT&T--:fire:



On a side note, their site says that when you rent a movie, you control the DVD player that is playing it for 4 hours. That's not much time for a longer movie, since part of the appeal here is that you can pause the dvd and go through and watch all of the bonus features on the dvd.

 

[Bill V]

If you're truly controlling the DVD player, it should allow Closed Captioning to be transmitted--which would be nice, seeing that that's not an option with services like Netflix's web-based services...

 

[Kevin Lang]

The article says you get all of the functionality of the DVD player via the internet, including subtitles.

Their technology even allows renters full control over the DVD player and can pause, rewind and add subtitles to the movie.

The article also doesn't state what you need on your computer to actually get the stream. Do you have to install special software? Does it use some screwy Adobe Flash throwup setup? Does it work on Intenet-enabled TVs and set-top boxes? Is there a mobile app, if so, what OSes?



If a service like this becomes popular, maybe it will inspire people to shirk the criminal data caps that ISPs are putting on us. Streaming HD content on Netflix now is several GB/hr per video.



Though, just to be clear, Zediva doesn't offer anything that Redbox does not, except the laziness factor of not having to drive to one of the hundreds of local Redboxes? (An advantage negatable by Zediva's wait times for movies, and the extra hassle of streaming)