Release Date Morals?

[r3port3r66]

Hi MoFo's, I have a dilemma on which I could use some advice, support.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I went to my family's house somewhere in California. There, as we always do, we rented some DVD's. But, the DVD's we rented on Thursday (Lilo and Stitch, Goldmember) weren't supposed to be released until the following Tuesday. For those of you who don't know, DVD's are generally released on every Tuesday of every month. Every time I visit my family we go to this video store, and every time we go there I notice they put out their new releases at least 5 days before they're supposed to!

I'm a freelance journalist, and my instincts tell me to expose this store to distributors. But, my brother says he enjoys getting movies before their release dates, and not to make a fuss. I probably won't. But, as I stroll through their wide selection of DVD's and I see the foreign editions of Star Wars, episodes IV-VI for rent, I get a little miffed (Star Wars 4-6 have not yet been released here in the US).

(I'm putting my un-PC hat on now) The store owners are Asian, not that that makes a difference, I think they are of Vietnamese decent, but somehow that comes into play in my mind, thinking why, when they know the rules of release dates, do they put movies on their shelves so early. There is a Blockbuster (an American corporate movie rental chain, known to edit R rated movies to be more family friendly) just a block away, but I'd rather see an independent, privately owned rental house profit before Blockbuster.

Still, if you do the math, releasing DVD's 5 days early at $2 a pop, you can understand why it is in the video store in question's best interest to keep the practice going. But, it doesn't seem fair anyway. By the way no one in the store renting movies seems to notice or care that this is going on.

What do you guy's think? Am I making too much out of nothing, and like my brother said, don't make a fuss, or should I expose this little video store to distributors (I have media contacts) for moral's sake?

[Holden Pike]

It is technically wrong what they're doing in jumping the release date, but I wouldn't personally do anything about it. OK, so they're bending the rules. So what? The independent retailer where I bought all of my LaserDiscs for years, he would always give me (and his other best customers, I'm sure) a shot at buying the new releases on the Friday before the Tuesday or whenever he got the delivery. Same thing continued when I first started buying DVDs from him. No big whoop.


As for the pirated Star Wars DVDs - and they are pirated make no mistake, not simply discs from another region, that's something I would be very tempted to act upon. Putting a valid item up for rental and purchase a few days before an official street date doesn't bug me too much, but making money off of pirated material, well, that simply ain't cool. I don't give two sh!ts if Lucas gets another gazillion dollars or not, but right is right in this situation (I think, anyway). Next thing you know, they'll be renting those cheap bootlegs you can get on the street corner where somebody has taken a home video camera into a movie theater and recorded the new feature. That's just crap, and even a little independent Mom & Pop business shouldn't be allowed to get away with it.

Perhaps before getting involved with the press and potentially having a messy legal hassle develop for these folks, write them a private letter and let them know that you know what is up, and that if pirated materials aren't taken off the shelf, then you will make a stink? Give them a chance to rectify the situation.


That's my two cents. Keep the change!

[Sir Toose]

Quite sensible Mr. Pike. I concur.

[r3port3r66]

Thanks HP for the advice. The private letter idea is a good one.

You said in your last post to this thread that the independant retailer you patronized would always give you and his other best customers a shot at buying new releases early. In my case, it's everyone, not just the best customers, getting the benefits.

One other thing: I'm not sure what pirated movies look like as far as packaging. But, the Star Wars movies in question here were very professionally packaged with crisp, clear cover art and Asian writing. It looked as though they were legit releases from whatever country they came from.

[Holden Pike]

Well, they aren't, theyre pirated copies. Lucas has not released the original Star Wars trilogy on DVD in any region at any time. They're very probably made from Japanese LaserDiscs, but they're pirated all the same - good cover art or not. Anybody with a Photoshop program and a half-way decent printer can easily mass-produce professional looking cover graphics. It ain't hard.


And I understand the distinction you were making, that this video shop puts the new releases out on the shelves early en masse for anybody who gets there first, but even so, this is a minor point to me. Pirated material on the other hand, that's not minor.