[LINK] Re: [2600-AU] "Restricting DVDs "illegal": ACCC" (fwd)

[Grant Bayley]

Forwarded with permission, an interesting viewpoint from a retailer about
this...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 10:04:38 +0800
From: Michael Harris <mail@winchester.ii.net>
Reply-To: 2600-list@wiretapped.net
To: 2600-list@wiretapped.net
Cc: biggs@iinet.net.au
Subject: Re: [2600-AU] "Restricting DVDs "illegal": ACCC"

Having already read this article this morning, I am incensed by the
comments of Mr Gareton and his total lack of commitment displayed towards
the DVD Rental and Sell-through market. I am involved in the running of a
store which specializes in DVD Rental, no VHS, just DVD.

We have been going nearly 18 Months now, and we started out just when DVD
started to get known in the marketplace, as we had an idea on how we can
fill a specialist niche in the market.

Having said that, this is what Mr Gareton was really saying in this article:

"We are such a big company, and we are going to do everything within our
power to protect our revenue sources, including fighting against
legislation which is going to erode our revenue base derived from practises
which we know are anti-competitive".

This is the same line which Mr Gareton and all his little minions from
Warner are spouting every time they talk to the stores. Simply put, they
are not totally committed to the DVD market.

Running a DVD store, we get to see just what lengths these companies are
going just to earn a few extra dollars. Firstly, we have them releasing
films onto DVD which are for Rental Only. This meaning that you as the
store operator have to enter into a special agreement to get these films
for your store which says that you will not sell these titles, and the
studio charges 3x Times Retail to ensure that you don't. This was brought
about all because they realized that they were losing revenue from VHS
simply because more people were buying on DVD, plus major rental chains
including Video Ezy and the like complained that their revenues from VHS
rentals were decreasing because people were able to go out and buy the
movie on DVD at the same time it was released on VHS.

Secondly, we have the introduction of RCE (Regional Coding Enhancement) by
Columbia TriStar onto their titles to stop players which have been modified
playing RCE-encoded disks (the technology Mr Gareton referred to in the
latter part of the article). This backfired on them as there are players
where this can easily be bypassed, plus the fact the first major
RCE-Encoded disk The Patriot did not achieve even close to expected sales
targets, along with Internet-based DVD stores including Amazon and
Express.com complaining that this practise severely eroded their
international sales of this title, something which they took Columbia to
court over in the US and won.

Finally, we now have the studios deciding to delay the release of DVD
titles as much as 3 months after the VHS release. Thus again protecting
revenue streams from VHS and inconveniencing those people who have decided
to experience the so-called DVD difference.

The fact of the matter is that these greedy studios are doing everything
they can extract every last piece of our money they can get their hands on,
while at the same time using protectionist tactics to aid these actions. At
the end of the day, all they are doing is reducing the ability of stores
like mine to compete in this market. The more of these silly protectionist
tactics they continue to pull, the stupider they will look.

Anyway, that's my 0.02c on this.


Kind Regards,

Michael Harris
Owner & Managing Webmaster
Winchester's Outpost

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Michael Harris
Winchester's Outpost

Internet:       http://winchester.ii.net/
Email:          mail@winchester.ii.net
ICQ:            2087991

Where would you like to take a trip to? - Launching 04.04.01
Find out more about out trip: http://winchester.ii.net/tothemoon.html



At 09:34 AM 27/03/2001, you wrote:

>http://australianit.news.com.au/common/storyPage/0,3811,1836144%5E442,00.html
>

[my original email snipped]