Disney has followed the path of News Inc. (who recently started offering episodes of the television ‘24′ to the users on its popular site MySpace). Disney will start selling movies over the Internet through CinemaNow. The distribution of media over broadband will only continue to increase, with Pat Fitzgerald, Executive V.P. - sales, distribution, and trade marketing, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, stating that the company is pleased with the opportunity that gives viewers something that they want - more flexibility. The downloaded products will feature both new and old titles, including same-day releases, for viewing on their PC’s and portable viewing devices. Of course, that’s where the story gets interesting.

At this point, the company is not permitting the burning of the downloaded media to DVD. The Entertainment Industry is still struggling to prevent illegal copying of their property and feelsÂ? itÂ? isÂ? important to make every effort to hinder these efforts. Disney does have a partial investment in TiVo, a sign that the company is aware of the trend towards on-demand digital content, and moving to a model that supports this evolutionÂ? in media is inevitable. Users that refuse to pay for this content will continue to acquire, and in some cases distribute, accordingly. However, there are users who simply turn to pirated copies of their favourite movies or shows simply because its there and legal, paid for content really isn’t. By making the media easily available, people will start paying for it, especially if the process is relatively simple.

The success of the iPod has shown that there is a model for the Entertainment Industry to use to recoup at least some of the money it claims to be losing, and regardless of what the difference between the two numbers is, any income received from this venture is gravy, at least at this point. The prevention of burning the content to DVD, although it may appear to be the right choice, it really somewhat of a mute point. With the breakthroughs in technology relating to storage and storage devices, the ability of the average user to store desirable content, either locally or on some universally accessible but third-party server, is becoming more of a reality. The fact of the matter is that the average person who would download this material isn’t your software distributor. The content may be given to a sibling, a niece, or a neighbour, but it ignores the real problem. What a company needs to do is accept that the distribution will happen regardless and provide the content in a manner that the general population truly wants it in. It’s not a matter of trying to protect their investment. This move really does nothing to prevent or disrupt anything that is already happening. Why not allow the users who are willing to pay for the download the flexibility to use it how they really want to? They aren’t the problem, they are the solution.

Like millions of others, I went and watched the movie The Break-upÂ? (is it weirdÂ? to go to to that movieÂ? with someone you just started seeing?). The movie was pretty funny, but what really got my attention was the trailer for one of the movies Coming Soon. I don’t even remember what the title of the movie was, but I noticed at the very end there was a message, “To join the community, visit our MySpace page at .” The site received so much free publicity from radio stations across North America and probably the world, and now has reached a point where even the movie industry can’t ignore the power of the beast. It reminded me ofÂ? a line in something Michael Arrington posted: with nearly 80 million members, Myspace is an entire economy unto itself.

When we were down in Seattle last week, we mentioned talking to Mr. Arrington about an article he was writing about widgets. He tipped us off about an article he was writingÂ? regarding TagworldWidgets. We had developed a website, FKMarry.com, and of course had developed our own widget to help feed the beast, but this was an example of taking that to the next level. We considered working frantically to get it completed to coincide with the official release and the TechCrunch post, but decided against it. Today that’s one of the many things I will tackle.

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I read two different posts about Zing, the project by Tim Bucher, former Sr. VP of Engineering for Apple. Bucher felt he was wrongfully dismissed by the computer maker, and having been in charge of the iPod product line (among other things), it seems he took it upon himself to seek revenge. The first post was on GigaOM, the second on SiliconBeat.

What Zing does is create a wireless bridge between your standard mp3 (or other digital) player and a third party source for content, Yahoo Music for example. The connection is made across any type of wireless connection, from WiFi to 3G (according to SiliconBeat) and even Bluetooth (according to GigaOM). The company has received money from Redpoint Ventures and signed a deal with SIRIUS Satellite Radio, and could be in a position to do goodÂ? things.

The only question we have to ask is whether or not this service is really relevant? It is obviously a good idea to have on-demand access to your music, and some of the features are interesting, but really, we think mp3 players as stand-alone devices are a thing of the past, or maybe the present, but definitely not the future. Your mp3 will soon be a standard feature on your cellphone, which will no longer be a cellphone but more like a mini-computer (somewhere between a Blackberry and an Origami).

This isn’t to suggest that these new products won’t be able to utilize Zing, but it’s not necessarily a question of being able to as much as it is a question of will they want to? Sony Ericsson probably has access to their own collection of digital content that they can probably send very easily on their own. Of course it’s a question of developing an analogous product or utilizing Zing’s product, which means the potential is huge if they can work the right deal. Obviously timing is everything, and arriving on the scene any later would be very detrimental. Hopefully it’s not already too late for this type of service.

While we were enjoying the experience of being part of Redfin’s official launch party, we did have time to talk to some people and if we didn’t talk to them, we sometimes just stole the company name off their name tag. Because of the significant role that Redfin played and their recent release, we hope to put together a full post about the company, so here is a glance at some of the other players at the event. Speaking of players, since he seemed to be in a similar boat as ourselves and was kind enough to drop us a couple links in his post, we wanted to give a shout out to Ethan Herdrick (why was it so hard for me to write down that URL?). Check out his post about the event.

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So, we got off work a little early, crossed the border with little trouble (just for the record, the Canadian border guardsÂ? were much gentler with the rubber gloves), hopped on the I-5, and made our way down to the Redfin/TechCrunchÂ? Seattle party. We were a little early, and put to work almost immediately, helping with the important parts of the event like bringing in the kegs of beer, hammering in signs, and helping setup tables. We met some great new people at Redfin, and were lucky enough to be the official Canadians at the event. Thank you to Angela (I hear she hates the name ‘Angie’), Glenn (with 2 “n’s”), and Ryan (done alphabetically to avoid offending anyone :)) for everything last night, next time we hope we can stay longer!

In the 90’s, this type of event was somewhat common among Internet companies. We talked with a few different people about that, and we think this is a good sign that confidence is returning to the industry. This time around, businesses are less extravagant, and the businesses more sound. The talk about another bubble should be a concern, but after rubbing elbows with some of our colleagues in the industry, we’d like to think those involved in the Web 2.0 revolution have learned something from the past.

Living in Vancouver, British Columbia, it often feels like we’re a country and three states away from what’s really going on in the world of the Internet, something we do consider to be a detriment to our progress and our ability to find that level of success and credibilityÂ? in the industry that we strive for. It’s good to attend an event like that to remind us that the Internet really is a global phenomenon, and we are really only a country and ONE state away from an important piece of the puzzle.