No Internet Access In Flight, But Here, Download A Movie
from the a-bit-different dept
While most airlines (especially in the US) aren't about to offer internet access in the skies in the near future, they are working on alternatives -- from digital satellite to downloadable music. Now, Southwest has done a deal with Movielink (described in a recent review with such descriptive phrases as: "little here to lure anybody," "annoying to use," "agonizingly slow," and "pathetically thin selection.") to let people download movies to their laptops to watch on the flight. Of course, they can't download them while they're on the plane, so you have to do it beforehand. In fact, you don't even have to fly Southwest to take part. You just go to a special site at Southwest that's run by Movielink. How is this different than someone simply going to Movielink and doing it on their own? Um... this offering has... a Southwest logo on it?
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
DVDs On Board
I have an idea. Why not have the flight attendants distribute DVD movies that you can watch on your laptop and then return when the flight is over?
They could come around like they used to do with magazines and offer you your choice of movies.
Distribution time is 15 seconds. How long does it take to download a full movie?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: DVDs On Board
how would they charge for this ?
what prevents people from sharing the dvd with the person next to them without paying.
there could be a percentage that would somehow
get damaged during the flight and who would pay
for that ?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: DVDs On Board
[ link to this | view in chronology ]