Joe regularly writes about his inspired ideas for changing the world. Most recently, he proposed USB movies for travellers.
Loaded by a vending machine that takes credit cards. The vending machine in turn loaded over a broadband connection every few days. The content could injected into the USB key (which could be sold as part of the package) with the content embedded in a player program. The player program is designed to timeout with the timeout being set to around 48 hours. After that you can discard the data and use the key as normal. Next time just reload the same key with a different set of movies/shows.
I like it. Presumably the USB works as a dongle, and you could only watch the movies with the device plugged into your laptop.
As a bonus, Joe recently wrote a longer entry about the problem of landmine clearing.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
You’re actually talking about digital rights management, it sounds. Putting a time limit on data is pretty much right up DRM’s alley.
It’s a shame that DRM is/was to be applied to ALL media, as it’s only got a decent and honest use as described above. Applying it to media we’ve purchased – not rented – is inappropriate, and it’s causing an adequate idea to look worse than it is. Thank those record labels for making this idea more difficult than it could be.
Me, I’d want to get one of those video ipods, connect to such a vending machine via a cable and get my shows on the way to the plane for sure. That would be excellent.
I really like this idea. Movies could be pre-loaded into portable USB “sticks” and so could all the programs that now come on DVDs.
Since there is a trend toward “netbooks” that come, because of their compact size, without a DVD player-driver, this idea has a lot of merit.
One thing to re consider is REMOVING the time constraint.
Consider these “USB Sticks” a substitute for today’s DVDs.
The key remains, accessibility, marketing, and simplicity. I have several ideas that make this an idea the other “players” haven’t thought of … and therefore provide a product in a niche they have not addressed. Let me know and we can discuss. Thanks.