Recently, thanks in large part to declining purchases of the tangible content — DVD purchases — Warner Brothers announced they would be doubling their 28-day delay to 56 days, which means rental services like Red Box and Netflix wouldn’t be allowed to offer any Warner Brothers new releases until they’ve been on the market for almost two months.

From Warner Brothers’ perspective, such a drastic and perhaps foolhardy move — cutting off one revenue stream to kick-start another one — would improve the potential for home movie purchases, reinvigorating the DVD market, one that sees consumers largely relying on rentals instead of physical purchases.

Over at Variety, they have Warner Brothers’ misguided approach to the home movie market summed up perfectly with the following quote of hot air nonsense:

“The consumer is best served by a windowing and pricing structure that ensures a healthy film business continuing to deliver quality movies. We hope to continue discussions with Redbox and reach a mutually agreed upon solution to this situation, but we fully intend to do what is best for our business, our consumers and the industry as a whole.” [Emphasis added]

If someone can actually get Warner Brothers to expand on that ridiculous “The consumer is best served by windowing,” with some tangible data, instead of relying on unsubstantiated hyperbole, it would be an amazing day. No, Warner Brothers’ true intentions are revealed in the final sentence that says “we fully intend to do what’s best for our business…”

Warner Brothers does not care about the consumer, they only care about their bottom line. Thankfully, however, one company in particular has taken a stand against Warner Brothers’ inane 56-day window. Red Box, the movie rental kiosk kings, is no longer going to abide by the WB’s delay. Instead, they are going to look for alternate means of supplying their customers with the titles they want. From Slash Film’s perspective, this can only mean one thing:

Red Box, instead of relying on Warner Brothers to supply them with new releases, will turn to the world of retail to acquire the content, which will be made available the same day it is released to the public.

In the world of spineless capitulation to these studios — I’m looking directly at you, Netflix — it’s nice to see Red Box take a stand against the studios, favoring the desires of their customers over Warner Brothers’ bottom line. Granted, their means of content acquisition may result in increased new release rental rates (speculation on my part), but the fact is, they are committed to bringing their customers the content they want, even as Warner Brothers hides behind “we know what’s best for the consumer” edicts.

According to the LA Times, beginning February 1st, Netflix users will not be able to immediately add new Warner Bros releases to their DVD queue. Currently, as soon as a new film jumps into Netflix’s database, users can add it to their queue. Of course, they still have to wait the designated window before the DVD will actually ship, but it serves as a kind of placeholder.

Well, now users will have to wait 28 days after the film is released on DVD before they can even add a new Warner release to their queue.

Earlier this month, Warner Bros and Netflix reached an agreement that extended the new release window from 28 days to 56 days. Once a DVD goes on sale, Netflix will have to wait nearly two months before they can ship the DVD out to customers. This rule also applies to Warner Bros new releases with Blockbuster and Redbox.

So now, a Netflix customer will have to wait 28 days to even add a new release to their queue, and then wait another 28 days before it’s actually shipped.

Apparently, the idea behind this is that any obstacle to lower-cost film viewing is good. Warner Bros believes that the current Netflix policy makes the wait for a new DVD tolerable. If a person adds it to their queue, they know it’s on the way. There’s a clear indication that as soon as it’s available, it will be shipped right out to their house.

But in the mind of Warner Bros, not having the DVD sitting comfortably in your queue will make you more likely to go out and buy the full-priced DVD.

It’s shit like this, Warner Bros. And people wonder why downloading a film seems like such an attractive option to many.

The current 28-day new release window came about in June of 2010, as the result of an agreement whereby Netflix accepted the gap between home video release and rental availability in exchange for rights to stream more of the studios’ content. This time around, Warner Brothers has increased the window without giving anything at all back.

This latest move against Netflix, Redbox, and Blockbuster follows a similar move against Blockbuster in October. Without asking permission first, Blockbuster made several new releases from Warner Brothers available for rent on the same day that they were available for sale. Warner Brothers retaliated by applying Netflix’s 28-day gap to Blockbuster.

As DVD sales and theater attendance have dropped in recent years, Hollywood’s increasing panic has driven the search for a scapegoat. Since the answer could not possibly have anything to do with increasing ticket and DVD prices and decreasing movie quality, the industry’s eye has fallen on Netflix (and the movie rental industry in general), and on piracy. As they combat the latter with legislation, they have been using every means at their disposal to make life as difficult for Netflix as possible, apparently believing that people who cannot rent a movie will simply go buy it instead. This is just the most recent of the entertainment industry’s efforts to resist the march of technological progress. Nearly every advance in entertainment technology – from the radio in the 1920s to VCRs and casette tapes in the ‘70s and ‘80s – has supposedly heralded the collapse of the entertainment industry.

Unfortunately, we can probably expect the entertainment industry to continue its staunch opposition to the forward march of technology. Which means that Netflix, Hulu, Redbox, Bitttorrent, and pretty much any means of accessing content that doesn’t line Hollywood’s pockets will continue to be the bad guy for the foreseeable future.

What do you think of Warner Brothers’s decision to increase the release window? Sound off in the comments.

[Source: All Things D]

At WarnerArchive.com, movie fans can choose from more than 150 classic titles that have never been available on DVD or for digital download. Some of the titles include Academy Award nominee "Sunrise at Campobello," "The Citadel," and "Mr. Lucky."

When a visitor to WarnerArchive.com makes a purchase, a made- to-order DVD will be created with the same quality as a standard pressed DVD. Titles will ship with custom artwork and arrive in about five days. The cost per title is $19.95, plus shipping.

Movie fans can also purchase digital downloads of the classic films to watch on their computers. The cost for digital download is $14.95 per title.

Warner says every month it will add 20 classic films and television programs to the site and at the end of the year 300 titles will be available online.

Warner is also asking classic movie fans for their input on future titles they would like to see in the archive. Fans can vote on the next 20 titles that will be offered in April.

"Whether it’s an Academy Award -winning classic from Hollywood’s Golden Age, a Sci-Fi cult favorite from the ’70s, or a silent rediscovery from the ’20s, the Warner Archive Collection has something for everyone, said George Feltenstein, senior vice president, Theatrical Catalog Marketing, Warner Home Video.

"This unprecedented initiative represents a tremendous effort from Warner Home Video and Warner Bros. Digital Distribution and is representative of the company’s continued dedication to film preservation."

Superman fanboy Thomas Denton, blogger and charitable eBayer, was so grateful for the help his family received from Candlelighters during his young nephew’s bout with cancer, he enlisted a team of comic artists willing to donate their artwork, some of which featured depictions of Superman. We’ll call them Superfriends, just to be snide toward Warner Brothers, DC’s parent company.

Denton set up auctions via eBay’s charitable auction channel to sell the Superfriends’ artwork, all proceeds, minus eBay’s fees**, to be forwarded to Candlelighters. But all was not well. A team of WB lawyers crashed through the skylight and forced eBay to pull the auctions, citing copyright and trademark violations.

DC owns Superman, they said, and Superman’s not allowed to help unapproved cancer patients, not even kids. (Cue dramatic villain music, and raucous, menacing laughter.)

Denton acknowledged his mistake despite being "heartbroken," and refused to play the victim. He asked that concerned Metropolis citizens still donate to Candlelighters. DC wasn’t completely devoid of sympathy and "made a exemption" [sic] for one of the listed items—you know, just to show they’re not complete ungrammatical jerks. Denton will still have to foot the fees for the auctions not reinstated.

This story has an even sadder end than that. Denton blogs he will be shutting down his Superman fan site. "I’ve sort of lost my enthusiasm for promoting WB’s products," he said. All because WB (and other corporations these days) can’t keep its lawyers on a tighter leash. 

Can anything save Thomas’s love of Superman? Is it too late for the Candlelighters? Will Metropolis ever be out of the iron grip of the overly litigious?

Citizens of Metropolis, without Superman it’s up to you, and Denton has nine other auctions running at eBay, with a day left to bid.
 
 

_{*If in fact she is, as her jilted hubby claims, a "cheating, lying, adulterous slag of a wife," selling a person is pretty much illegal (and wrong) everywhere, especially on eBay, million dollar bids aside.}   

**No good deed goes unpunished, eh?
 

Scooby and Fred Flintstone aren’t the only welcoming features on Warner Brothers’ fun stuff webpage, which lets visitors know in large block Wonder Woman letters that it’s “just for kids.” Just above and to the right of the scrolling “V for Vendetta” sweepstakes (wait, isn’t that movie rated R?), you’ll see that the page is sponsored by Zango Games.

Zango is already making people angry elsewhere over their adware affiliates. The love child formed of adware and (alleged) child porn browser distributor 180 Solutions and Hotbar, Zango offers hundreds of free games through downloading the Zango Search Assistant. Clicking on the Zango Games icon in the top right corner of the Warner Brothers webpage leads the visitor to the download screen.

The page promotes games like “Bubble Burst,” biblical-sounding “The Walls of Jericho,” and “Jade Shadow.” All that’s only important if you want to make a case that these pages and the downloads offered are targeted toward kids, which they are.

The kicker is in the End User License Agreement (EULA). Above the EULA, a box confirming that the downloader is 18 is pre-checked (i.e., it’s clicked for you). In the EULA, which is probably read about as much as the box is unchecked, the language reveals something peculiar.

Zango tells the user that certain keywords used while using the Search Assistant will deliver porn. One has to wonder if those words include “breast cancer” or “sex education.”

“So you are a parent,” writes Chet Faliszek, who pointed us to the problem. “You monitor your kids on the web. You let them go to the WB so they can check out one of the WB’s cartoons. And what do you get? Pop-up ads and porn ads!”

One commentator on Faliszek’s blog mentions that the pre-checked box can be unchecked and a user can still download the software. Faliszek advisers concerned parents and citizens to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and call their representatives.

Or give Alberto Gonzales a call. He was quite happy with the misleading hyperlink and domain law passed this week, which imposes criminal penalties on persons intending to trick children into looking at porn.

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