• by Mitch Oscar , Op-Ed Contributor, May 15, 2007

My golden retriever Jango approaches objects that he is not familiar with by cautiously extending his massive head and two front paws forward, and simultaneously cautiously moving his two rear paws backwards. Often my family and I can ease his exploration anxieties by simply picking up the object of curiosity and holding it before him. He wags his tail in appreciation. Discovery does not come easily to him. The other day while watching him scope out the unfamiliar, I thought of the consumer electronics and entertainment industries' approach to video digital rights management, and the similarity between their approach to making video content available to potential customers and Jango's fear of the unknown.

Movie download services offer the best examples of this phenomenon:

Movieline, an online movie service, owned by a consortium of studios, lets consumers burn one copy of each electronic movie purchased onto computer-readable DVDs. Once you've purchased it, you can watch your movie as often as you want -- but only on a Windows PC. Some films can be watched on up to three different PCs; others can't. You can make a backup copy to DVD but you must copy it back to a PC to view it; you can't watch it on a standard DVD player.

Amazon's Unbox lets you watch movies on up to two Windows PCs or some TiVo video recorders (selected titles only) and you can copy a film to a handheld, but only if it runs Microsoft Windows Mobile Media Center software.

CinemaNow, an online movie service, allows the consumer to burn one copy of various titles (112) onto DVD.

How can these scenarios encourage consumers to engage with these platforms? Even if consumers accept these Byzantine limitations -- and acknowledge reading the fine print of their subscription commitment -- what happens in the future when these subscribers upgrade their computers or video players? Will they be able to move their previously purchased movie from device to device, or will the entertainment companies look at the upgrade as a sales opportunity for the same content that was on the older device?

In my opinion, the entertainment industry is approaching the release of television content on the Web the same way. Two paws forward and two backward:

Video destination Joost's latest announcements in terms of content deals, not investment, centered around the availability of Hasbro classic episodes of "G.I. Joe" and "Transformers," Sony Pictures TV library content and NHL vintage games.

Sony recently announced that it will launch an Internet-based service called the Minisode Network, which will run on MySpace and feature programs from its library, such as "Charlie's Angels" and "T.J. Hooker." The rub: the original shows in their entirety (44+ minutes) will be shrunk to under six minutes.

Movie studio MGM, the fourth movie studio to make its movies available to the public for downloading from Apple's iTunes Store, will initially release 25 "classics" from the MGM library.

And of course, the television networks (broadcast and cable) continue to sprinkle their content on the Web through clips of selected programs, library content, remixes, making-of specials and outtakes -- rarely full episodes. I don't think that "Saturday Night Live" skits, when you can get them, and late-night talk-show-host monologues qualify as a deep commitment to making content available through the Internet.

So do not ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for the consumer electronics and entertainment industries if they are not able to figure out their video digital rights management issues in a way that makes consumers comfortable and encourages them to engage with the product and services in the offering.