Youtube often takes the credit for bringing unscripted video to the masses. And rightly so. Where else would netizens go to get their fill of David Hassellhoff’s outrageous Music Videos, or Michael Richards revealing remarks? Online video streaming sites offer a lively interactive user experience, one where people can watch their favorite television tid bits and blog about it too. But while video streaming websites have been on an explosive rise, they have not been without their limits. Watching feature-length films has been a hassle. Try hunting YouTube for the last David Chappelle standup act and you’ll find yourself scouring through Parts 1-10, wondering whether any content has been lost along the way.

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Enter Stage6. When I first came upon this website I was spellbound. Content streamed into my browser at near-perfect quality. The intuitive DivX Web Player, a required but quick download from their site, automatically dimmed the rest of my desktop and provided options for full-screen view that was actually full screen. A few quick searches on Google for “Happy Feet Stage6” produced several websites with links upon links of movies available for my viewing pleasure, all in beautiful widescreen glory. The movies on Stage6 weren’t broken up into several parts either, which meant I could literally pop out the popcorn, kick up my feet, and get entertained.

What does this mean for the Movie industry? And are the MPAA likely going to have something to say about it? My guess is they will, and probably soon. While videos on YouTube and Metacafe are served piecemeal with choppy quality at best, Stage6 provides an alternative to DVD rentals that is simple, elegant, and for all intents and purposes, an actual alternative.

But all need not be lost. Stage6 still provides an excellent platform for indie film makers to broadcast their latest creations in hi-def, and it does so on a significant scale. What’s more, for every hundred links to Hollywood films on Stage6, at least 20 will be dead within a week–something which strongly indicates the Stage6 team are doing something to combat piracy.

How does this all ultimately break down? Well Intellectual Property law is a complex and emerging field of law, and I’m still only a law student so this won’t be official legal advice, but I’d be willing to venture (and hope) websites like Stage6 will stick around for a while. The bottom line is so long as people are uploading links at a faster rate than Hollywood can find and stomp them out, the real fault won’t be with people who provide the online video services, it will rest on the property holders who fail to find those links and report them.

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