Warner Bros. Hates Libraries, Wants To Embargo DVD Sales To Libraries For A Month
from the oh-come-on dept
The movie studios' short-sightedness knows no bounds, apparently. Warner Bros., which has been the most aggressive of the big movie studios in getting companies like Netflix and Redbox not to rent its movies until 28-days after they go on sale, has now decided to do the same thing for libraries, putting in place a 28-day embargo on all DVD sales to libraries, from the time of the DVD release. To make it even more obnoxious, they're removing bonus features and extras from movies sold to libraries.Here's the thing, though. What's to stop a library from just buying an official version and lending it out? The whole thing is pretty silly anyway. Is Warner Bros. really thinking that if someone can't take out one of its movies from the library, that they'll really go buy the DVD from WB? Also, doesn't this seem like a form of price fixing?
In the end, though, it's unlikely to actually help. Slightly more enlightened studios, such as Paramount, actually tested such 28-delays and looked at the data, which said Netflix and Redbox don't cannibalize sales, and appear to "expand" the movie business. Too bad Warner Bros. hasn't seen that movie yet. Perhaps they're still waiting for the 28-day delay to pass.
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Filed Under: delays, dvds, libraries, rentals, windows
Companies: warner bros.
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What version is this? Most DVDs are about $20.
Anyone can go buy a DVD and lend it to friends. This is the first sale doctrine. Libraries don't need the "approval" from WB to lend out DVDs. WB can go eat a bowl of dicks.
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Just released
Perhaps surprisingly, you'd be pretty much wrong about that.
The only way I see movies now is by getting them from the library, and they show up there just as quickly as they do in the stores. We will routinely look at the "Just Released" or "Coming Soon" lists published on various sites, and go to our local library web site and put a hold on things we like, and nine times out of ten, the library has them or is in the process of getting them.
We're nowhere near the only ones that do that. Typically our county library will get ten to twenty copies of a new release, and they'll all disappear into hold-queues for months before you ever see them on the library shelf.
I don't live in a particularly affluent area; the library gets by somehow, and they DO know what butters their bread - satisfied patrons - and they are willing to spend to keep them that way.
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"The question is: how do we make ownership more valuable and attractive?" Warner Bros. Home Entertainment President Kevin Tsujihara told the Financial Times. "We have started the process of creating a window in bricks-and-mortar DVD and Blu-ray rental."
I laughed for a solid minute at how badly he missed the point.
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There is no "license". That kind of silliness was adjudicated in the favor of the individual a long time ago.
Admittedly, Big Content does it's best to devalue ownership of a copy.
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http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/10/blockbuster-trying-to-evade-warner-bros- 28-day-buyers-only-window.ars
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They're waiting for the 95+ year public domain delay to pass
... oh wait.
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Is there any indication that Warner is going to lower the price on these library DVDs?
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"In addition to being released 28 days after the retail version, Warner’s rental version DVDs and Blu-rays will not contain bonus features or extras. However, we understand that there will be a significant price reduction for these products, apparently amounting to an average $4 per DVD title and $8 per Blu-ray title "
it would appear to be a good deal for the libraries, considering restrained budgets, and obviously they aren't in the "latest release" commercial war.
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it would appear to be a good deal for the libraries
So you're not really sure?
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28 days is no big deal to me
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Re: 28 days is no big deal to me
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Re: 28 days is no big deal to me
Now I could care less about when movies are released. I just try to check out redbox often enough so I don't completely miss my opportunity to contribute my $1 to the studio (minus redbox's cut).
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Re: 28 days is no big deal to me
In the reality the studios have managed to avoid for years now, people just buy the stuff they intended to buy anyway, and if they want to rent, waiting 28 days is meaningless.
If I were into mixing metaphors, I would say that the market knows The Window Has No Clothes.
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Oh the extras...
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Here's hoping you're right, but I'm not seeing a great outpouring of honor and integrity in the current generation, and it's the only thing that overcomes corruption.
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I have to say it is entirely amusing to watch a people who have stated over and over again in different threads that they aren't ever going to buy "hollywood's shit", complaining about release windows. This to me is the key in any discussion here, because while you guys may dump all over the stuff, you are in fact Hollywood movie consumers. If you were not, you would just say "good move, hope you are out of business soon" and go back and watch whatever the "Sita Sings the Blues" replacement of a month is.
The reality? You are Hollywood movie consumers, and this stuff bothers you because it hurts your enjoyment of the product (and perhaps makes it a little harder to find a decent DVD rip to download).
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About goddamn time. We are the consumers. They are hurting our enjoyment of their product.
Welcome to our side of the debate, my friend.
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You can't buy something before it is on the market. Enjoy it when it is available. Otherwise, you can sit now and watch it on your Iphone 5 over the 6G wireless network.
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I also am not buying nothing from you people I prefer to pirate it, now more than ever.
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Martyrdom is a good thing if you have nothing better to do.
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To use your example: How do you think McDonalds would do, from a business standpoint, if they insisted that you wait 2.8 hours for your McRib, after it was cooked, because they didn't want to canabalize their burger sales and some marketing guys said that if I'm standing around in a McDonalds waiting for my McRib, I'm more likely to buy a burger. You'd say it was stupid, I bet. My choice to buy one has zero bearing on my choice to buy the other.
To make matters worse, since the 28 day window is fake, i.e., I could go to the store and buy it, it's available for me to stream free *long* before it is legitimately. That's called "shooting yourself in the foot" and it's generally considered a "Bad Thing".
WB, supporting piracy since 2003.
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The movie theater release is sort of like a limited engagement preview. The movie is not available by retail at this point. You can pay a higher rate to see the preview.
Then it is released, usually on PPV, and that has a lower rate than the movie, but higher than your typical movie rental.
Then it is released for retail sale to individual customers, not for bulk sales.
Finally, it gets released for sales to rental and libraries, with some features removed, for a price that is significantly lower than retail ($4 - $8 average lower).
As for your McRib example, I invite you to go to your local Mickey D location at 7:45 AM and order a McRib. They will tell you that it isn't currently available, even if they have everything they need to make it on hand. At 10:30 when they switch to lunch menu, they will make it for you, and give it to you about 2.8 hours after you asked for it.
They aren't shooting themselves in the foot then, are they?
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Prove it. ;)
The movie theater release is [blah blah blah]
You're telling me how it is, I'm telling you that the way it is is stupid and is pissing off customers. It had it's time and place, but that is in the past now.
As for your McRib example, I invite you to go to your local Mickey D location at 7:45 AM and order a McRib.
I'm going to ignore the fact that the real reason they don't serve lunch at breakfast is a lack of space to cook that many things, because I know what you're getting at.
Running with that scenario: If there was a guy outside selling McRibs during breakfast time, and every time someone asked for a McRib at breakfast and were turned away from McDonalds, they simply went to this guy and got one, who was giving them away for free. Sure, he got the ingridents in a shady manner-- they were slipped to him by a McDonalds employee at a McDonalds across town-- otherwise they are exactly the same as an official McRib. Most people would still rather get one from McDonalds, but they want a McRib more than they want a McRib from McDonalds. The "from McDonalds" part is desired, but not required.
McDonald's has two choices: Go after the guy and make him stop giving away McRibs, or give the customer what they want, and sell McRibs for breakfast. The sad truth is, even if they stop the guy from giving away McRibs, there are still people out there who want a McRib for breakfast and they aren't going to suddenly want a dry and brick-like Egg McMuffin, they want a McRib. They'll just look for it elsewhere, or go to Taco Bell instead.
In every scenario except one, McDonalds does not come out ahead. The *only* scenario where McDonalds comes out ahead is giving the customer what they want, when they want.
This isn't rocket science.
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But I do care about this stuff because when it fails they use it as an excuse to encourage more draconian laws that will take away my freedoms and try to destroy the Internet in the process. I'm sick and tired of businesses I don't support (and don't give a damn about) trying to take away my rights because they feel they have some God-given right to make obscene profits without having to adapt with the times.
Of course all you copyright maximalists will refuse to believe that I don't want their product. Your world view is completely "us vs. them" and if we're not one of you we're lying, thieving, stealing jerks who want everything free. You can't fathom someone thinking your industry's worthless and not worth supporting (or watching). But we do exist, and we're freaking sick and tired of you taking away our freedoms because you can't adapt to changing times.
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His "rights" are the ones that keeps entertainment companies from making decisions on what websites are allowed to exist.
Now what point was the one that you missed?
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Occasionally, if the price and conditions are right. Otherwise, I ignore the shit your gods put out in favour of real cinema. I don't own over 800 DVDs because I want to watch a frigging remake of Footloose for $20... I like some Hollywood movies. I've been ripped off over and over again. Being told that a legal preview facility I use isn't good enough any more because there's profit to be had makes me less likely to try to uncover the occasional gem.
"go back and watch whatever the "Sita Sings the Blues""
Why is this your default example, as though it's some kind of insult? I'll take Sita over Transformers 2 any day of the damn week, and I saw that piece of crap for free as well (legally, before you jump to your usual moron mode).
Seriously, do you have any other examples of a movie you don't like, or do you just like picking on that one because - at no cost to yourself - you decided to see it after reading about it here.... ooops, that's word of mouth advertising isn't it? Can't have that in Hollywood, we have to restrict everything instead so we "make money"! (warning: money may not actually be forthcoming)
"this stuff bothers you because it hurts your enjoyment of the product"
Yeah, being told I can't watch a movie until I'm deemed worthy of it for a premium price and only get offered a DRMed to hell copy that I can't play in half the devices I own and can't skip the ads/lectures on not pirating the copy I just legally obtained? I wonder why that bothers me...
Of course, if I say "screw that" and watch something else instead, a moron like you comes along and tells me I'm a pirate because the restricted crap failed. Imagine that.
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I'm starting to understand the troll that used to always say that the only people who actually buy versus pirates are idiots.
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Yet another sterling example of how the movie industry is creating their own problems. I presume that sales / revenue lost from this will also go into the "OMG pirates are stealing our profits" pile instead of the "yeah, we screwed up" pile.
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Since our usual distributors are prevented from selling to us, we are planning on stopping off at the local store purchasing the DVDs we want and making them available to the public.
Additionally, because these movies won't be available through the traditional alternative rental means (netflix, red box) demand for these movies is increased and we will purchase more copies than the non-embargoed DVDs. What was a 3-4 copy purchase will probably end up being a 6-10 copy purchase.
This embargo is only hurting the large distributors and certainly doesn't have any impact on libraries. I'm honestly not sure what WB was hoping to accomplish with this policy.
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WB rental "embargo"
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