By Remember those signs outside of Blockbusters way back when that said something to the effect of, “We get new movies 28 days before Netflix does! Please love us…”? I thought those were still around, but I guess not. Not only Warner Bros. also thrown Blockbuster out to the wolves in order to cut down on competition and consumer convenience, it has dug a moat around its castle which will require the brave knights fromNetflix, Redbox, and, yes, Blockbuster to swim for 56 days and nights before they can prove they are worthy enough to give the public the ability to physically rent Warner Bros. films.
I may not be a lawyer, but something about this strikes me as kind of monopolistic and potentially illegal. Maybe it isn’t, but it should be. Warner Bros. seems has realized that digital distribution actually is actually a pretty cool thing, but they should know by now that limiting consumer choice is exactly the kind of thing that causes rampant file-sharing, and this is adding a pretty major limitation.
Bad move, Warner Bros. Bad move.
[Via Engadget]