So, John bought me The Animatrix on DVD, and we watched it together. I loved it, especially Last Flight of the Osiris (and not just because of the pretty female protagonist).

What I didn't love was the package. The DVD was shrink wrapped; there were long, sticky seals on 2 sides. We finally had to find a sharp knife to remove them without trashing the DVD case. One was labelled in large letters 'Security Device Enclosed'. The other was just annoying.

The only upside was that the interminably long, non-skippable static FBI copyright warning was missing - the one I watch every time I watch a DVD other than Animatrix (it has a parental warning in place of the FBI warning).

Animatrix may be new ground for Warner Bros. - they allow downloads of, as we speak, 4 of the 9 tales on this DVD: I'll wager they make a lot of money on it, because it's convenient to have the DVD, even thought the movies can be downloaded. And the downloads will draw interest and drive demand at a grass roots level.

Back to the packaging: clearly, major studios don't think much of their customers. Do they need all that stuff because they think I am a thief? Heck, the only people who see this stuff are the people who buy the darned thing - online downloaders aren't pulling off 3 layers of sticky crud and snoozing through FBI warnings.

Companies that hate their customers, sooner or later, go away. Remember railroads and their 'public be damned' attitude? See what's happening, in bankruptcy court, no less, to airlines that squeezed and mistreated their customers at airports? I can't wait for a media company that will treat me like they're grateful for my business. And I am continuing my boycott of major-label CDs and DVDs. My business may only be costing them only $2,000 a year but if you multiply that by a lot of angry customers, you get the richly-deserved demise of these idiots...
Comments 5:51:26 PM    

Chris Gulker's view from Silicon Valley - in words and pictures