Specter of universal broadband Internet access is sending chills ...

but it eventually will spread, allowing users who have broadband and compression software to download full-length films in 12-15 minutes. Online movie piracy is problem even now, Valenti said: By one estimate, 300,000-350,000 movies are being pulled off Internet illegally every day, figure predicted to swell to one million in near future. “I'm not a great believer in estimates,” Valenti said, but he said MPAA antipiracy staffers were able to download Gladiator in watchable form after it had been in theaters for only one week. To counter expected onslaught of cyberpiracy, MPAA recently created Digital Strategies Dept., and was attempting to open dialog with manufacturers of software, computers, recording devices and other products about intraindustry copyright protection standards. Studios want ability to encrypt their movies and take advantage of whatever digital rights management and watermark technologies are available, Valenti said. That’s easy to talk about, he said, but “goddamn difficult” to get done. MPAA members are pushing to develop services in which first-run films are placed online at same time in distribution sequence as they're dispatched to pay-per-view audiences, he said. However, he said, although studios hope to roll out the services by end of year, “we're not there yet.”