While at the moment you'll still need to resort to less than legal methods in order to download Mission: Impossible III, word is coming that you'll soon be able to download your indie movie faves from Lions Gate without risking a lawsuit. Studio CEO John Feltheimer recently announced that deals have been reached with CinemaNow, Movielink and iTunes, allowing users to download movies for their portable devices. The iTunes movie-download service could likely be launched by the end of this year, with a consortium of studios other than Lions Gate likely to be involved. This could give Vongo some competition, and while both services must have Netflix nervous, it's rumored to be considering a similar delivery strategy as well. And although none of these options are providing high-definition content (yet), all this probably isn't being seen as good news for those hardware makers of Blu-ray and HD DVD players. No word on price or whether or not you'll be renting or buying the videos, but word on the street has been to expect a $9.99 price point on iTunes for movie rentals. We'll let you know when an official announcement is made. — Peter Suciu

Via Engadget