AOL will offer movie downloads from four studios (20th Century Fox, Sony, Universal and Warner Brothers).

AOL Video started in August as a one-stop shop to search and download a wide range of video content from the Web,” wrote ScientificAmerican.com in an article that makes one wonder if they’re not owned by AOL/TimeWarner.

Why price the same as retail for a download that doesn’t include the packaging and probably has ridiculous digital-rights management locks?

1. No difficult-to-open DVD wraps
2. No expensive gas to get to the video store
3. There is no reason 3
4. AOL has been good to you. Return the favor by taking their profit margins from 30 percent to 80 percent