Who’s Minding the iTunes Store?

Blogger Whalesalad was just trying to download the “Knights of Cydonia” music video from the iTunes store but instead ended up with a full-length feature — Hondo starring John Wayne.

The movie was originally produced by Warner Brothers in 1953, but distributed on DVD by Paramount, who signed up with iTunes in January. As a commenter points out, the problem has been fixed. But keep your search results sorted by ‘time’ and any other extra-long music videos you spot might actually be movies.

The file was apparently in the iTunes Store’s standard m4v video format, presumably encased in FairPlay DRM. I’d love to find out how Paramount feels about this gaffe, and if they’ll be charging Apple full wholesale. Not that either of the companies will miss any meals based on a few downloads at the two dollar price point, but if iTunes can’t keep the shelves stocked straight it can’t help with their efforts to land business from other studios.

No word if the version available on iTunes is in 3D like the original theatrical release. At the time it was a technology craze that Hollywood embraced in an effort to combat the loss of audience to television. Given this revelation yet another ironic twist.