Los Angeles Acting blog by David August: Warner Brothers May Be Silly About Rentals

Saturday, January 07, 2012

Warner Brothers May Be Silly About Rentals

There are murmurs that the deal mentioned is not actually how the deal was made, but some of the issues remain relevant. As I've mentioned before, various times, the audience wants to watch what they want, when they want, where they want, and entertainment businesses can either let them do it with the business' cooperation and help, or let pirates fill the demand and be left financially out of it.

Warner Bros. just revamped deals with Redbox, Blockbuster and Netflix effectively doubling the wait time for them to get new releases. What it really means is, they're making you wait longer and trying to force you to buy discs earlier, it sounds underhanded to me at a time when they just seemed to be seeing the light of the modern era. Personally, I'll just boycott new disc purchasing.

I mean seriously, the overall effect is probably going to be heightened piracy. Someone will buy the Blu-Ray, rip it and off it will go round the world. Those who were tired of waiting 28 days are certainly going to be far from pleased with having to wait 56 days and so, will turn to piracy. Maybe this is their ploy and then they can say "See we NEED SOPA!" (which we don't, that bill is horrible, just go read it)

(from ReelSEO). There is recent precedent of piracy increasing when releasing is delayed.