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Sony is planning to allow owners of its PlayStation Portable games console to download feature films from the Internet, for single version storage. Amazon.com and CinemaNow are apparently in talks in with Sony about signing up to the venture, reports The Financial Times.

The new service, which will be compatible with the existing version of the PSP, is expected to launch in the 'first quarter' of next year, and it has been developed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, says the paper.

With the PSP's small screen offering scope for file compression, it is expected that 10 feature films will be fitted on a 4GB memory stick.

Sony has sold 20 million PSPs worldwide since its unveiling

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in May 2003.

Walt Disney has already profited from making its films available on iPods through the iTunes Music Store - Disney, of course, owns Pixar, which is the second home of Steve Jobs - and Fox has been in talks about its movies appearing on iTunes.

The big issue, however, that Sony will face will be protecting the movie studio's content, to encourage a burgeoning market. Apple already has a well established track record in this field, courtesy of its PlayFair technology, but mention 'Sony' and 'DRM' in the same sentence and a different story emerges...

It was a year ago that Sony was discovered to have used rootkit technology to secretly enforce copy protection on certain CDs, in a bid to prevent unauthorised copying. It became a major PR disaster for Sony when hackers subsequently exploited Sony's implementation of the rootkit code to smuggle in viruses to a PC.