When pushed, even the most ardent luddite would have to admit that there are upsides to the internet. While one can decry drops in literacy or the easy access to dangerous materials (ya’ know, like Marxism 
) the internet does things that traditional media outlets just can’t. Want an example? Try Jaman.com, a ‘multicultural’ video download site.
On the surface, Jaman is like Movielink or Cinema Now. The difference is that, while it has a selection of indie American film, it specialises in non-Western downloads from the Middle East, East Asia and, most prominently, India (the name Jaman comes from a popular fruit from the subcontinent – but don’t ask ’cause I don’t get it either). Films can be purchased for $4.99 or rented for 7 days for $1.99. The former price doesn’t really match up well to the countless grocery-cum-video stores that dot North American suburbs where you can buy a DVD copy of a film for a couple of bucks. The latter price, however, isn’t bad as few people ever return to the poor-quality, illegal DVDs they buy. Beyond the economics though, I just think it’s great to see a modern internet-y service that’s targeted at minorities. So much of the e-revolution has either focused on the white mainstream or has attempted to replicate its models. Jaman is at least doing something to counteract that trend.
Of course, Jaman isn’t by any means perfect. Naturally, this being an American film startup trying to get a foothold… the films are DRM’ed to hell. I’m sure they had to ensure DRM to sign distribution deals, but it’s still a pain in the ass that they require a proprietary player. The films themselves are also a little heavy on the size-to-quality ratio – while the picture isn’t really that great, full-length films can hit over 2 gigs, which is a little steep considering that they start to get fuzzy on anything larger than a 19″ monitor.
It’s also interesting to note that the CEO of Jaman is a guy named Gaurav Dhillon – which is about as Punjabi a name as you can get. I suppose this proves the ole’ American dream rule – if you want something to change you have to do it yourself and it seems it took a minority in the Valley to even think that there might be money in the ‘ethnic’ market (good God, how I hate that word).
On some level, I think the service is more interesting for simply existing than for what it does. Still – if they can get rid of the proprietary player and get some more current releases, they could very well have hit on to something merely by being first to the party.
