Done with SmartFlix!!!

Their website states that they will contact you within 48 hours in response to your email. The responses were of the type: “My boss hasn’t gotten back with you yet?” There was no attempt at resolving issues, such as getting the DVDs sent out.

Now, at one point they did give me a free month. But they didn’t send out the DVDs, so I’m a little confused as to what they were trying to accomplish.

After four months and numerous emails of which most went unanswered, they finally came up with a solution. They cancelled my subscription and said they would give me a refund. No apology, no explanation as to why they didn’t send the DVDs. I’m waiting for the credit.

I understand what you’re saying, but the situation isn’t as black and white as you’re making it out to be. Let me play devil’s advocate for a minute.

Current US copyright law says that SmartFlix’s business model is perfectly legal. This is a fact. So we would have to change the law. The problem with changing the law is the huge number of unintended consequences that would spring from it. Do you think you should pay a royalty to Toyota every time you rent one of their cars? Do you think you should raise your property taxes to pay royalties to authors every time their book is checked out of the library? I could come up with these scenarios all day long. You see… once someone sells me something, it’s mine. They are not entitled to a continuing revenue stream every time I use it.

Now, having said all that, small content producers have a legitimate beef with Smartflix. Personally, I think the real solution here would be for them to join together in some sort of guild or organization that would negotiate a deal with rental companies for them. Something similar to what the movie studios do with Blockbuster, etc: the rental company purchases DVDs for some amount over retail as compensation.

But… you’re right. If the current situation makes you uncomfortable, then you should vote with your pocketbook. That’s the free market in action!

Dave

While I have used SmartFlix in the past, I am troubled that the creators of the DVD’s don’t see any benefit from the rental. Since hobbyist videos don’t sell in the numbers that “movie” videos do, I see this as a longer term issue for hobbyist DVD producers.

As the popularity of SmartFlix increases, the profitability of the DVD producers decreases. In my opinion, there needs to be some acknowledgement of the intellectual property created on the DVD. (for example, a small fee paid to the DVD producers). Otherwise, the business will not florish and DVD production will be impacted.

Perhaps it’s a moot point since on-demand video will likely replace DVD’s at some point in the not too distant future – we’ll see.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Chet