Amazon media locker may hit Tuesday, lack phones and tablets
updated 09:25 pm EDT, Mon March 28, 2011
Amazon media locker may eschew mobile
Amazon's rumored online media locker could arrive as soon as Tuesday but with major limitations in place. Sources said Monday night that, to avoid requiring secondary license, would have to drop certain conditions. It might have to forego support for phones and tablets, the WSJ was told as an example.
Most of the details mentioned were repeats of earlier details. Amazon is believed to be pushing hard on licenses and may unveil the locker even though it doesn't have full clearance. However it would launch, the service would let users upload their own personal content, not just media they'd bought from Amazon MP3, Amazon Video, or the Kindle Store. It's not clear if or when Amazon could implement a permissions check to see whether content was bootlegged or legitimately falling under fair use.
Executives are reportedly looking to get a more extensive service after the new deployment.
The service, however limited, might still end up pipping previously planned models from Apple and Google. Apple has promised that it would use its datacenter expansion in the spring for iTunes and MobileMe but might not have a public service still in testing and is still facing opposition from labels hoping to double-dip on licensing fees.
Professional Poster
Joined: Jul 2005
Boring
They're working at offering something which no consumers have really been asking for. It also seems to be an overly complicated solution to something that really should be a no brainer. I should be able to buy a movie from iTunes, and not have have to worry about losing it if I lose my computer or get it stolen. The purchase records should show I bought it on iTunes, and it should be a simple redownload. I don't know why this is so hard for content companies to understand. It seems like they're putting a whole lot of effort into doing something that everyone probably thinks they already have.