The idea of true, pure, unfettered video-on-demand has been a movie industry chimera since the dawn of time. What if, executives say teasingly to their audiences, we gave you everything in our catalogs whenever you want it? You would never leave the couch.

Never mind that that studios don’t necessarily even know what they own. Video-on-demand, as imagined by consumers, requires unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage, and unlimited time. I think we’d settle for wide selection at reasonable prices. First, of course, we need to get the households of America wired and networked for downloadable video. Total downloadable domination isn’t technically feasible yet, so why are the studios so terrified of angering Wal-Mart?

Let’s face facts. DVD sales are declining. Internet usage is up. Shelf space in bricks-and-mortar stores is limited. Hard drive space is cheap and easily expandable. Not everyone has access to a Wal-Mart. Not everyone has a broadband connection. Read the entire entry …

Kirk’s debunking of the Amazon myths briefly discussed the prices and restrictions being imposed on consumers who use this service. Simply put, it ain’t good for the customer.

Which, I suppose, will ultimately be bad for the studios.

Amazon has perversely chosen to ignore consumers wants and needs in an effort to bow to studio concerns about piracy. The result is prices that reflect the last century — apropos, as it was pointed out that the suggested technology for linking to your television gives you a picture straight out of 1995.

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Last week Amazon launched Unbox, its long rumored video download service. In the days since its unveiling Unbox has attracted a storm of media coverage - a surprising amount of which has been misinformed and misleading. As a service to Medialoper’s readers, we will now attempt to debunk a few of the most persistent myths surrounding Amazon Unbox:

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My first Joss Whedon experience came during the summer of 1999. After having watched the San Francisco Giants on TV every night for weeks on end I finally snapped and abandoned my husband to his stupid Barry Bonds obsession and discovered one of my own.

I decided that flipping channels on the TV in our bedroom was better than watching another baseball game. (Yes, I realize this is going to rile more than a few ‘Lopers. I love baseball. Really. Just not the Giants, and just not every night). While flipping channels I came across a repeat of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s season three episode “Choices.”

That was the beginning.

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On the surface of it, I’m a natural candidate to upgrade to one of the latest HD DVD formats: I have an extensive and ever-growing DVD collection, and I have a pretty decent HD TV and sound system.

So it would be logical for me to take the next step — upgrade to either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. But I’m just not going to do it, not yet, and maybe not ever.

I’m also guessing that I’m not alone. Here’s why:

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Two big stories raced through Hollywood yesterday (though one was less discussed than you’d think). First, Sony Pictures Entertainment paid $65 million for a social networking site called Grouper. Second, Paramount ended its deal with Cruise/Wagner Productions. Neither of these things will likely affect you as you go about your daily business, but they’re fascinating to people like me.

The Grouper thing? Well, Sony had a few choices there. They could have built something for a lot less. A lot less. The technology is cheap and the video sharing market is wide open. Do not believe the hype about YouTube ruling the world. There is plenty of room for competition. You need to recall that YouTube is only now approaching its first birthday.

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So Snakes on a Plane didn’t do as well as expected. What surprises me is why anybody is surprised about this. But they are, and the backlash against the blogosphere has already started.

“It doesn’t create any sort of mandate for Internet promotion,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations, noting that all the Web hype for Snakes on a Plane didn’t translate into ticket-buying.

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The Boy Scouts of Hong Kong are at it again. Last year they began awarding merit badges for copyright proficiency, and now they’ve enlisted their entire membership to scour the web for signs of piracy. Nothing says summer fun for kids like firing up the laptop and searching the internet for intellectual property violations.

It’s not just the Boy Scouts either. According to the New York Times 200,000 children Youth Ambassadors, will be actively involved in the program.

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A couple of days ago, I discussed the announcement by the film download service Movielink that they had licensed software to allow downloaded films to be burnt to DVD. Of course, there was still the tiny little hurdle of getting the studios to go along with their plan. Maybe by the end of the year.

Enter CinemaNow. They announced yesterday that they have not only licensed DVD-burning software and gotten a studios to take a flyer on the concept, but they have actually started offering the service. Naturally, there are issues.

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Some good news for those who are interested in legally downloading film: Movielink, one of the major services originally created to sell movie downloads, is going to allow consumers to burn their downloads to DVD.

Will this be the magic steriod that will kickstart the mostly-ignored film downloading service? Probably not, but it is a start.

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