EZTakes adds downloads for iPods, other portables

By Cheryl Cheng -- Video Business, 8/29/2007

AUG. 29 | Download service EZTakes has added a To-Go option on its site that will allow consumers to download content onto their portable media players, including Apple iPods and Microsoft’s Zune.

Customers can already download EZTakes content to burn onto DVDs for playback on any DVD player.

Rather than using digital rights management, the content is protected with the company’s proprietary digital fingerprinting technology, in which each download has a unique ID number that can trace the original source if pirated. Other movie download services such as iTunes and Zune’s use their own proprietary DRM technology, which prevents playback on devices other than their own.

But because EZTakes uses digital fingerprinting rather than DRM, the company’s downloaded content can be viewed on any DVD player or portable media device.

“We think the best way to sell movie downloads is to give people more value, not less,” said Jim Flynn, EZTakes CEO. “Our To-Go option is part of our strategy to provide the kinds of products and services that paying customers like. That requires convenience and flexibility, in addition to legitimacy.”

The EZTakes To-Go option functions as a plug-in module for the EZTakes Download Manager and operates with Microsoft Windows. It will be available for Apple Macs in the near future.

EZTakes’ catalog offers about 3,000 feature-length downloads from such suppliers as Palm Pictures, Troma Films and Razor Fitness.

Downloads start at $1.99 each for such classics as A Farewell to Arms (1932) and Night of the Living Dead (1968). All titles also include the bonus features that are on the DVD.