YouTube Launches Movie Rentals For The UK

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YouTube has rolled out its movie rental service in the UK. Youtube.com/moviesnow features over a thousand feature films including The Dark Knight and Reservoir Dogs alongside British classics like Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. The UK is the third country to get the service, following the US and Canada.

Prices for the films range from £2.49 to £3.49. Users have 30 days to watch the movies rented and then have 48 hours to finish the movie.

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A Pirate’s Life For Me: Police Bust Hungarian Movie Ring

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If you had any misconceptions about the noble pirates fighting the nasty, dirty MPAA, put those to rest now. Here’s the inside of a pirate’s lair in Budapest where we find a 70TB disk array (the article claims it held “5000 movies, 4000 songs, 6000 games and 500 pieces of software,” which is a ridiculously low number), blow, and what appears to be a shotgun.

A pirate group called CiNEDUB has single-handedly “forced” Warner Brothers to stop releasing films in Hungary for fear of having their content recorded and pirated on the day of release. Sick of CiNEDUB preventing them access to the ouvre of Harry Potter, the police busted the ring and found a large server room, lots of cash, and a mirror and razor blade combo that suggests some high times.

The bust happened under pressure from the Hungarian National Tax and Customs Administration. Two members of the nine member team are behind bars while the rest are still at large. From Torrentfreak:

“Most of this team were responsible for the great American filmmakers blacklisting Hungary,” NAV said in a statement.

Say what you want about freedom and digital rights: these guys were, in the end, making money on pirated video. I don’t like corporations pressuring governments to do their bidding and I agree that it’s stupid to equate piracy with terrorism and gangsterism, you can’t honestly say that whatever these guys were doing in that cocaine- and shotgun-infested flat improved our digital freedoms one iota.

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YouTube Rolls Out Movie Rentals In The UK

Jordan Crook studied English Literature at New York University before entering the tech space. Prior to joining TechCrunch, Crook dabbled in mobile marketing and mobile apps as well as doing device reviews for MobileMarketer and MobileBurn. Crook is fascinated with alternative energy production and greentech. She is now a writer for CrunchGear. ? Learn More

YouTube today delivered its movie rental service to UK customers, making it the third country to gain access to the service. Both Canada and the U.S. have enjoyed YouTube movie rentals for a while now. At this point there’s plenty to choose from, with over 1,000 different titles ranging from blockbusters to indie films.

Each rental will last 48 hours, and cost between £2.49 (USD $3.87) to £3.49 (USD $5.42). Users can access their rented videos from any computer as long as they’re signed in to their YouTube account, along with Google TV, any Honeycomb-powered Android tablet and select Android smartphones.

Here’s what YouTube had to say about it in a blog post:

We’ve got some cracking films to keep everyone entertained through the upcoming winter months and beyond. From blockbusters like The Dark Knight and Reservoir Dogs, to new releases such as Hanna, Fast Five, and Red Riding Hood, and even British classics like Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Sounds like a nice rounded-out collection to choose from, and it doesn’t stop there. The service has partnered with studios such as Universal, Lionsgate, Entertainment One along with independent British film makers such as Metrodome and Revolver Entertainment.

YouTube was founded in 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, who were all early employees of PayPal. YouTube is the leader in online video, sharing original videos worldwide through a Web experience. YouTube allows people to easily upload and share video clips across the Internet through websites, mobile devices, blogs, and email. Everyone can watch videos on YouTube. People can see first-hand accounts of current events, find videos about their hobbies and interests, and discover the quirky...

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Keen On… Connected: The Movie About All of Us (TCTV)

Andrew Keen is an Anglo-American entrepreneur, writer, broadcaster and public speaker. He is the author of the international hit “Cult of the Amateur: How the Internet is Killing our Culture” which has been published in 17 different languages and was short-listed for the Higham’s Business Technology Book of the Year award. As a pioneering Silicon Valley based Internet entrepreneur,... ? Learn More

One of the most interesting movies of the year launches tomorrow. Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death and Technology is the work of the award-winning filmmaker Tiffany Shlain and it deals in both a personal and idealistic way with the impact of digital connectivity on all of us.

“All these technologies are just extensions of ourselves,” Shlain reminded me when she came into the TechCrunchTV studio to talk about Connected. The Bay Area based filmmaker – who founded the Webby awards in 1996 – believes that “in our lifetime,” everyone will be connected. And that’s why she made Connected – to confess what connectedness means to her and what it could mean to all of us as an increasingly connected human race.

Connected is a must see movie. But before you see it, watch Shlain, a woman who has captured the ambiguity of our connected future with unusual clarity.

Watch the trailer:

Andrew Keen is an Anglo-American entrepreneur, writer, broadcaster and public speaker. He is the author of the international hit “Cult of the Amateur: How the Internet is Killing our Culture” which has been published in 17 different languages and was short-listed for the Higham’s Business Technology Book of the Year award. As a pioneering Silicon Valley based Internet entrepreneur, Andrew founded Audiocafe.com in 1995 and built it into a popular first generation Internet music company. He is currently the...

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Honored by Newsweek as one of the “Women Shaping the 21st Century,” Tiffany Shlain is a filmmaker, artist, founder of The Webby Awards, co-founder of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences and a Henry Crown Fellow of The Aspen Institute. Tiffany’s work with film, technology and activism has received 44 awards and distinctions and her last four films have premiered at Sundance. Her films include “Life, Liberty & The Pursuit of Happiness,” about reproductive rights in...

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Netflix Starts Rolling Out Movie And TV Show Streaming Service To Mexico, Latin America And The Caribbean

Leena Rao currently works as a writer for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003, where she was... ? Learn More

Movie and TV subscription service Netflix has announced the arrival of its service in Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean in the coming week. Netflix launched today in Brazil and will be launched in 43 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean by September 12.

Netflix announced in early July that it would be launching in 43 countries across Mexico, South America and the Caribbean later this year. The company also announced a deal with CBS to offer content in these regions.

Brazilian users can immediately begin a free, one-month trial of the Portuguese-language version of Netflix by going to Netflix’s site. After the free month, the monthly subscription price for Netflix will be BR$14.99.

On Wednesday the Spanish-language version of Netflix’s streaming service will become available in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. The monthly subscription for unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows in Argentina is 39 pesos while in Uruguay and Paraguay the price is US$7.99 per month. On Thursday and Friday, the service will roll out to Chile (3790 pesos per month), Bolivia ($7.99), Colombia (14,000 pesos), Venezuela, Peru and Ecuador (US$7.99). On Monday September 12, Netflix will launch its service in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. In the Caribbean region, Netflix will be available in English and Spanish and will cost $7.99 per month.

It should be interesting to see if Netflix can take off in these regions. Already, the company is seeing success with its service in Canada, recently announcing 1 million subscribers. Of course for Netflix, broadband access will be a contributor to usage outside the U.S. and Canada. And striking international content deals is going to be key to the company’s growth beyond the U.S., where it already has major deals in place. And Netflix recently closed a deal with Telemundo for Latin American subscribers.

The company suffered a blow this past week, when Starz announced it would not be renewing a content contract with Netflix next year.

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