Movielink will make it easier to download full length films.

Movielink, the movie studios' answer to digital piracy, is revamping its online rental service to make it easier and friendlier for users. Today, the company, owned by Sony, Warner Bros., Paramount, MGM and Universal, will announce that:

*Full length films, which can take two to three hours to download, can now be viewed during the process, as soon as two minutes after the download begins.

* New viewing policies will allow laptop users to watch full length films they've downloaded without having to stay connected to the Internet, as had been the case.

* The selection has grown to 450 titles from 175, including Gangs of New York and Die Another Day. The cost ranges from $3.99 to $4.99 for recent full length films.

Movielink has grown to deliver "tens of thousands of downloads per month," says CEO Jim Ramo. "We're not yet in the millions, where we want to be. It will require people connecting their TVs to their broadband systems for us to be broad-based, but we think that's coming. Next year you'll see the beginnings of this digital connection, and more in 2005 and 2006."

Indeed, a study released Tuesday suggests that, as music and movie-on-demand services get more sophisticated, CDs and DVDs may be headed for oblivion within 10 years. "The idea that you have to go to a store and buy entertainment is fast becoming obsolete," says Josh Bernoff, an analyst with Forrester Research. "Why buy a CD when you can have instant access to what you want on the Internet?"

Forrester sees pirate music and movie sites eventually disappearing, to be replaced by licensed services. Bernoff predicts on-demand full length film distribution will reap $1.4 billion in sales by 2005, as DVD sales, which have been booming so far, fall 8%. "The studios are terrified of piracy destroying their industry and are doing everything they can to prevent it," he says.