Hacking NetFlix

Is it Ethical To Rip DVDs?

Jason Calacanis asks a very interesting question about ripping DVDs that are in your posession:

I have a Netflix account and I'm about to go on a road trip. I'd like to rip the three DVDs I have onto my hard drive and iPod so a) I don't have to carry the DVDs and b) so I don't waste my battery life on my computer (dvd spinning kills the battery quicker than a compact flash card).

If I don't send the DVDs back until after I delete the files when I return from my trip, and I don't share the files, have I done anything wrong?

The Netflix Terms of Use states that your membership can be terminated if they "believe" that you are copying DVDs:

Netflix reserves the right to terminate your membership hereunder if Netflix, in its sole and absolute discretion, believes that you are in violation of this paragraph, such violations including the copying of DVDs rented to you by us or the copying or other unauthorized use of our proprietary content. Netflix does not promote, foster or condone the copying of DVDs or any other infringing activity.

If you decrypt a DVD (they are protected by CSS encryption), you are violating the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, and it is illegal (this was a sneaky way for the MPAA and the studios to take away fair use).

What do you think? Forgetting the legal issue, is it ethical to rip your own DVDs?

National Lampoon Launches DVD Club

If you like the National Lampoon movies, you'll love the National Lampoon DVD Club. For $59.95 per year you get one comedy DVD per month, and they are offering a 30-day free trial (which means you get a free DVD just for signing up).

Thanks to Movie Freak for sending this in.

Blockbuster Online One Month Free Trial Offer

Blockbuster Online offers a free one month trail offer for "friends and family." Since I consider all of you to be my friends, use promo code "friend1" before October 5th.

More Information about Netflix Hillsboro Customer Service Center

Netflix announced that they have hired Stephanie Sanford as director of the new 28,000 square foot Hillsboro customer service center. The center will open next month, and customer service is expected to be transitioned to the new location during Q1 2007.

The Company said because its members appreciate the self-service aspects of Netflix.com, it has not needed to employ more than 100 customer service representatives. But as the Company moves toward its goal of 20 million members by 2010-2012, its Customer Service division must grow commensurately. The Company chose Oregon for expansion because of the high quality of customer service representatives in the Portland area.

"We like Hillsboro for so many reasons," said Netflix Chief Talent Officer Patty McCord. "The area is rich with experienced customer relations and tech savvy people, many other world-class companies have customer service centers here, and it's a reasonable commute from our Silicon Valley headquarters.

"Plus, the folks in Oregon and Netflix share many values of honesty, candor and an appreciation for creativity and innovation," Ms. McCord added.

Home on the Strange: If Real Life Was Like Netflix

Online comic strip Home on the Strange takes on the Netflix movie allocation system (also known as "throttling" or "smoothing").

Click here to read the entire strip.

CustomFlix to Sell Through Amazon Unbox

CustomFlix will soon enable customers to sell their videos through the Amazon Unbox service.

Here's a little blurb about CustomFlix:

CustomFlix Labs, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. Our mission is to profitably connect filmmakers and content owners to a worldwide audience.

To accomplish our mission, CustomFlix developed our DVD on Demand service, which allows physical media to be produced when customers order. At the heart of the CustomFlix service lies the Future-Proof Archive™ service, a secure storage and formatting platform that allows content to be repurposed into future digital formats.

via Cinematech.

Does Netflix Return Personal DVDs?

Lando writes:

I'm curious to know how many people have actually gotten back discs that they've accidentally sent to Netflix. I accidentally sent a video game disc in my envelope and I've since then learned that there is a good chance I won't get it back.

Have you ever sent back a personal DVD to Netflix by mistake? Did you get it back?

Here's the Netflix help file on personal DVDs:

Q: I accidentally returned a personal CD or DVD. How do I get it back?
A: Unfortunately, we're unable to return personal CDs or DVDs that are mistakenly sent to us.

I can understand the difficulty in returning personal DVDs, since Netflix processes more than 1 million DVDs every day.

Netflix Damaged Disc Policy

Trixare4kids writes:

"I opened up my Netflix mail last week to find a disc had arrived almost cracked in half. I reported it on Wednesday but asked them NOT to send me the same thing, instead please send something else.

I noticed that they did not immediately send something new out to me, rather they waited until the damaged disc was received by them on Monday to mail the new disc. I've been with netflix a number of years and this is only the second time I've ever reported a damaged disc so maybe the policy has changed since the last time I reported something as unplayable/damaged.

They used to send a replacement or the next thing on your queue immediately and did not wait for the disc to be returned. Right?"

What have you found? Did Netflix immediately send you a replacement or did they wait until they received your damaged disc before sending a new one?

Here's the official Netflix damaged disc information from the help system:

Q: I received a scratched, damaged, or unplayable DVD. What do I do?
A: If you have received a DVD title that is unplayable, try cleaning the disc first. (window cleaner on a paper towel works well.) If the disc is cracked, damaged, or still won't play, you can report it at the Rental Activity page in Your Account.

On this page you also have the option to request that a replacement disc be sent to you immediately.

Please return the damaged disc, as many damaged discs can be repaired with our polishing machine. Also, for many titles, Netflix must account for, or pay the movie studio for lost discs; your return of the damaged disc is appreciated, and helps keep costs low for all our customers.

Another Hybrid High-Def DVD Technology

Eric sent in a Reuters story about New Medium Enterprises, a British company that has developed a technique to create a low-cost multi-format DVD disc.

The production costs of a multi-layer DVD using the new NME technology are estimated to be around 9 cents, compared with the 6 cents for a standard single-layer play-back DVD, according to Dutch company ODMS, one of the world's leading makers of production lines for optical disks.

This 50 percent cost increase compares favorably with the current generation of multi-layer recordable DVD disks which cost 3 to 5 times as much to produce than a single layer disk, due to low yields.

NME claims that the technology is complementary to the Warner patent.

Fool CAPS Recommends Stocks Like Netflix Recommends Movies

Rick Aristotle Munarriz from the Motley Fool explains how they've built a Netflix-like stock recommendation engine (watch out for the patent lawyers!), Invest The Netflix Way.

At this point, let me introduce you to Motley Fool CAPS. You may already be an active player in the stock-picking simulation, or this may be the first time you've heard of the new site feature. Either way, let me show you a neat way to use it to open up your investing philosophy, much like Netflix widened your consumption of quality flicks.

By going to the Sirius CAPS page, you can absorb a lot of the same data that you'd find in conventional portals -- news, fundamentals, and stock charts, for instance. However, off to the lower left of the page, you'll see the "What the Community Thinks" section.

There, you'll find that 562 of the 688 players feel that Sirius will outperform the market in the future. And right below that, you'll find that way to expand your own investing ideas, as I promised you earlier.