Kind of a dick move, Universal.

[cyrano]

Tonight I re-watched Scott Pilgrim. (Forgot how much I enjoyed it.) And.... just wow. Universal left in the bonus *menus* but went through and specfically removed all the bonus material, replacing it with with a snotty note that said "This is a rental copy. If you weren't such a cheap bastard, you would have gotten a non-rental copy that hadn't been neutered."

Comments

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, lil_m_moses mentioned encountering that with a Netflix rental several months ago. :/

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I was expecting more 'we made a disc with just the movie'. It's the teasing, holding out a DVD menu full of carrots and then saying "Only $24.99 more and you can have these carrots, Sparky!"

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I actually told Netflix that my copy was defective because the special features weren't there. And then I borrowed it from the library to watch the special features.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

That is an excellent idea.

[greyweirdo.livejournal.com]

Wow, now I will never EVER buy that movie.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Were you in danger of buying the movie before now?

[amanda_lodden.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it doesn't inspire me to give Universal any money at all.

[marialuminous.livejournal.com]

Grrr. What's next, cutting pages out of library books?

[zdashamber.livejournal.com]

Whoa. Shitty. Also gotta wonder wtf Netflix is thinking in this... Why did they buy a maimed DVD?

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Probably because Universal said "take it our way or you get bupkes".

[zdashamber.livejournal.com]

And Netflix said "Really? Because Amazon just shipped us 500 copies of the real DVD. Ta!" Or not?

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Dunno if they depend on the studio for cut prices or not. Also dunno how much a bad relationship with a major studio ends up punishing them.

But I love this idea anyway.

[miss-friday.livejournal.com]

I'm sure Netflix could get a similar discount from Amazon, but then would run right into the Great Wall of United States Copyright Law. Netflix distributes copies for monetary profit. They *have* to get permission from Universal to do this. Universal, in the monopoly position for its films, gets to charge what they want for these rights.

I bet Netflix is happy to rent spayed copies because I'm sure it meant the rights fee (and the check they cut) was less.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

And this is why I love having smart friends.