Valenti: movies will boost broadband

Jack Valenti predicted Tuesday that making movies available via broadband Internet access will help establish a “wondrous new delivery system” that will rival other media. Speaking in Aspen, CO at a meeting of the Progress & Freedom Foundation think tank, Valenti said that once technicians find a secure way to deliver films online to people willing to pay for them, “broadband and the Internet will take off.” (Some observers contend that a fool-proof system to prevent online piracy can never be achieved. They note that even Microsoft has been unable to produce a method to prevent its software from being copied and transmitted illegally.) As reported by the online publication Newsbytes, Valenti told the conference that studios will not provide films until they can be assured of a fair price. “By the way, that is to be decided by the consumer, not by the distributor,” Valenti added. “Then, [the public] will come.”