Forget Blu-ray, the clock is ticking on hardcopy movies, PERIOD!

Great article on The New York Times about the growth of movie downloads. In much the same way as recording artists have learned that they no longer need record labels, so too have the independant filmakers adopted internet distribution to reach a wider audience. Hollywood, typically, is still trundling along late to the party.

Major studios — fearful of both piracy and cannibalizing the money they make from DVDs, their biggest source of revenue — are entering the Web film market cautiously. The few hit films online are generally put there only after they are widely available elsewhere, and often for the same price as a DVD.
But the major studios may not be able to play possum much longer. The DVD business is flattening. And media forecasters are busy out-predicting one another about how many billions of dollars Internet video will throw off each year.

At the same time that the DVD Copy Control Association is breathing its last gasp trying to stem the tide, the content distribution model is heading away from the marketing of hard copy. It kind of puts the whole Blu-ray vs HD-DVD schmozzle into perspective.

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