Paramount Pictures is exploring a new frontier by participating in an offer to sell Seagate Technology hard drives with a copy of the latest Star Trek movie and 20 other films already on board.
The one-month offer, which both companies on Monday called an industry first, would combine a 500-gigabyte hard drive with a free version of 2009's Star Trek for an online promotional price of US$100. An empty 500 GB Seagate hard drive usually sells for US$140 (NZ$200).
The other movies distributed by Paramount, including GI Joe, Nacho Libre and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius come pre-loaded with a digital lock that requires a code that can be purchased online for US$10 to US$15 each. Even watching Star Trek requires registration.
The pre-loaded movies come with a Windows-based digital rights management system that prevents file sharing. They take up about 50 GB of the drive itself.
