Wow, after leaving this thread yesterday it looks like it totally "exploded."
Thanks, Kringas. I think you really get my point, which a lot of these hot-headed kids missed entirely. Imagine if you owned your own video store, and the guy down the street got his shipment of the RENT DVD ahead of yours and started selling the product prior to the street date. You'd lose a lot of your business for that particular title. You would likely turn around and try to settle this issue with Sony. The street dates are there for a reason. Mostly for the merchants, not the consumers.
And if it's a hot title like Star Wars III, which I also worked on, you can bet that any and all merchants who were caught selling that DVD prior to the street date were served with a nice fat law suit from Lucasfilm. It was a real crack-down, and everyone received lots of friendly warnings about it in advance. They had the FBI working around the clock on illegal releases and premature sales of that DVD.
BUT... I'm preaching to the choir here, Kringas. I know you understand what I'm talking about. And I feel good that at least some of you readers do.
BOTTOM LINE: It's not just "sticking to the rules" that's the issue. It's unfair business practices for a store to be selling prior to a release date.
Thanks again. I think I'm out of this thread for good now.
*heads for the shower*
(P.S. --- Rathy, I got a big laugh out of that "Narc" comment too. I felt just like Kristy McNichol in an afternoon movie.)
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22