Netflix Gives In to Warner Bros Greed

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Netflix has given in to Warner Bros' greed. I just can't think of a nicer way to say it. Netflix has agreed to wait 28 days after a Warner Bros DVD release before making those DVDs available to the legion of Netflix users. Warner Bros is hoping that this will translate into more DVD sales, operating under that false dichotomy that the only alternative for Netflix users is buying a DVD. Clearly Warner Bros has never heard of Blockbuster.

My prediction: sales of Warner Bros DVDs will not appreciably change. Traffic to the Pirate Bay, on the other hand... Hey, Warner Bros, if you treat your end customers like punks, then you should expect them to punk you.

The thing is, though, that other studios and distributors will try to the same thing: monkey see, monkey do. Mashable also posits the issue as a choice between buying or waiting, but that's not exactly true, is it? Soon there really will be only two choices for people who want to watch the latest Justin Long classic: buy or steal. Three guesses what web-savvy movie fans will choose.

Will this hurt Netflix? Probably not. After all, they get something out of the deal, too: access to streaming content from Warner Bros. Also, Netflix true strength isn't its just-in movies, but the depth of its I-can't-believe-they-have-that-random-movie-add-it-to-my-queue catalog.