The Net Reboots Cinema

The Net Reboots Cinema
by: Dorothy Woodend

In the January issue of Harper's Magazine there is a particularly interesting statistic in Harper's Index which reads: "Percentage of Americans who say they are willing to have an Internet-access device implanted in their brains: 10."

If the current U.S. population is 303,246,847 (with a new person added every eight seconds) what's 10 percent of that figure? I'll wait while you do the math, but basically it's a lot of people who need the Internet like they need air or water.

Naturally enough, this week Apple announced that you can now rent movies online directly from iTunes. It's been predicted for a long time and now it's here. Interesting? Yes. A little creepy? Even more so. One day you'll probably be able to download films directly into your brain, via the Internet-access device in your head. Which means, more than ever, the Internet has got you wound in its serpentine coils and has slid into your very synapses. We are all online now. Even the term is sort of funny when you think about it, like a hooked trout or an English queue, the very word conveys a sense of being tethered, and increasingly that's how it feels.

Just because you can now rent films online doesn't seal the end of theatres or video stores or film festivals, but likely it means increased marginality for such entities.

Read the entire article here: http://thetyee.ca/Entertainment/2008/01/18/NetCinema/