Warner Bros. to sell movies via BitTorrent (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Warner Bros.'s video unit onTuesday unveiled plans to sell movies and television shows toBitTorrent Inc. for legal downloads from the Web site that wasonce blamed for aiding the swapping of illegally copied filmsand programs.

The pact marks a big step for Hollywood as it increasinglymakes digital files of movies and TV shows available on the Webbecause until last year, BitTorrent's software and Web sitewere considered to be aiding piracy of major studio films.

But in November, BitTorrent agreed with the Motion PictureAssociation of America, which represents Hollywood's majorstudios, to help stem illegal swapping of digital movies and TVshows by removing links to pirated copies.

Executives from Warner Bros. and BitTorrent said the MPAApact and new digital rights management (DRM) software fromBitTorrent were key elements in bringing the parties together.

"We've come to a point where you have sufficient consumerdemand and we have the technology that is now mature enough,"said Jim Wuthrich, senior vice president, Warner Bros. HomeEntertainment.

Starting this summer, Warner Bros., a unit of No. 1 mediacompany Time Warner Inc., will make more than 200 filmsincluding blockbusters such as " and the Goblet ofFire" and TV shows like "Babylon 5" available atBitTorrent.com.

The content will be available on the same day and date theyare put on sale in retail stores, but cannot be copied andburned onto a DVD. They must reside on a computer drive.

BitTorrent will charge customers, and while final priceshave not been set, the company expects TV shows to be pricedcomparably to the current rate of $1 per episode on other Websites and movies to be around the price of a new DVD.

"We have just been embraced by the largest movie studiothat is owned by largest media company," said Ashwin Navin,co-founder of BitTorrent. "We expect to see more deals and topush the envelope" for getting people video on the Web.

He said the site was in talks with other studios forsimilar deals but did not name them. Nor, did he say whenBitTorrent expected to sign other agreements.

For years, the studios have been worried that offeringdigital movies online would lead to illegal copies being tradedand sold. Overall, the studios figure piracy costs them $6.1billion in lost revenue.

But in recent months, the studios have begun to enter thenascent market for legal digital downloads. Last month, theysaid they would make movies available for legal downloads thatusers could own indefinitely. Until then, movies were availablefor download to be stored for a brief time, then erased.

Consumers continue to want to download movies and burncopies on blank DVDs, but executives in Hollywood believe thattype of service is still months and perhaps even years away.

http://us.rd.yahoo.com/