Sony wants an 'iTunes' for movies

Sony is planning to make 500 films available online from next year, reports BBC News. The model, according to Michael Arrieta, senior vice president of Sony Pictures, would be Apple's iTunes music download site.

There remain big issues to giving people more access to films and other digital content anywhere, anytime.

Issues over protecting and controlling the distribution of content once it has been legally downloaded and moved to a portable device, for instance, still concern the movie industry.

But with the growing popularity of powerful portable entertainment devices, such as Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP), which can play movies and other multimedia content, it is becoming a pressing concern for the industry.