PATMANN

Greetings all. As you can see, I have just joined(first post), and must admit I do enjoy this site. Very useful information, colorful people, and what not, in all, i like this place. Let me get straight to the point...

I work at Hollywood Video store and have seen quite alot of..."STRANGE" things. Case in point-HV Has a MVP plan. For 9.99$ a month for the first 3 months, and then 14.99 a month thereafter, u get to rent ANYTHING that has the blue sticker on the rental box that says MVP. And anything that is not on the walls. How is this strange? For 10$ a month, u get 3 out at a time, get to come in the store unlimited times a day, and get 3 movies at a time, as long as you return the 3 previously rented. I talked to the manager about this, and with todays technology, ANYONE who is smart enough, can copy DVD's that they rent. The managers reply, "Well, HV does know this, but since we have over 600 members with MVP on their account, thats 6000$ per month for us." Wouldnt it be stupid for John Doe to come into the store 3-5 times a day, get 3 videos at a time for 15 videos a day. Theres no way possible he is watching these. But the manager is just blind to this stuff. What do you guys suggest I do? Let this go on, or just ignore it???

BigDan

Not sure I understand the problem.

Are you saying that there is a person or people who come in and rent several times a day? Or are these theoretical people?

If there is a person or people who are doing this, what difference does it make if someone overuses the system? Does renting out a large number of videos cost the store money? I know Netflix has the postage issue so heavy users of their service cost the company more than lighter users. Is there a per unit cost at Hollywood Video that would be similar?

And even if you did something, what is it you'd want to do? Alert the copyright holders and turn the guy in (and that's assuming there actually is a person)?

Yes, copying videos is wrong, but I don't see what difference it should make to you, especially if the manager of the store doesn't so much care.

PATMANN

There are people who do this. Lets say movie "A" is being rented out with the MVP deal. All 12 copies are gone, 20 NON-MVP people come in and want this movie, but we cant, cause all the movies have been rented out to the MVP. Thats how HV looses money.

Can i contact the movie compaines about this???

If i can stop the bootlegging of movies what would i get?? Nothing in return. So i see your point, but its just wrong.

BigDan

Yeah, but the program allows people to rent movies and keep them as long as they like. A guy who brings movies back the same day would potentially cost Hollywood Video less because HV can reshelve and rerent the movies he rents quickly. The person on the MVP deal who keep the movie several days would cost the company more in the scenario you mention. Your scenario costs HV money whether someone is copying the discs or not (and, like I said, potentially costing them less if someone is copying the movie and returning it quickly) since you've got 32 people who want 12 copies of a movie.

Chances are you wouldn't get anything (except potentially fired from Hollywood Video for violating customer privacy and potentially in legal trouble for possibly violating the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988) from the studios for turning someone in, but them or the Motion Picture Association of America would be who one would contact, I would assume, if your manager is uninterested.

Plus, I wouldn't necessarily call that bootlegging since that implies a profit motive or distribution beyond this person's personal collection. A person renting a movie, copying it to watch at his leisure and returning the movie is not a bootlegger. A copyright violator? Most likely so. But not a bootlegger, per se.

ben12

Why do you care if HV loses money? Do they give you some kind of profit-sharing deal? If not, I wouldn't worry about it. It's their problem, and if they're too dumb to notice it... eh...not your problem.

tasha99

Maybe worrying about the copying habits of your customers is kind of a waste of time. You can't really confront them without losing your job (and besides, I can think of reasons people would rent a bunch of movies on one day and come back for more--I've done it when I had sick kids, for example.)

D-Ball

That seems to go against your argument. If the MVP people are coming to the store more than once a day, then those 12 copies will be back in stock faster than if regular renters had the movies. I doubt there are many people doing this on a daily basis, but you could make a suggestion to the corporate office to place a daily limit on the number of rentals for the MVP club.

conscience

PATMANN, if I were you I wouldn't worry about it (as you don't seem to be the manager). It's not your problem.

raytrade

To be honest, if some clerk decided to get indignant on me for renting videos too often whatever my reason, I would be very offended. And if they tried to report me to authorities based on nothing but their own baseless conclusions of what they think I am doing with the videos I rent, I would most certainly find plenty of attorneys more than happy to sue the idiot clerk and the video chain. If I am following the rental program's rules, it is my business what I choose to do with the videos. A clerk assuming I am doing something wrong is just as bad as if I rented a bunch of movies all the time about murder mysteries and the clerk concluding I must be a sicko preparing to kill someone and feels an obligation to turn me in for suspicious activities.... or forget about if I rented movies with rape themes, what would that clerk conclude?

This does not mean I support bootlegging or copying copyrighted material. I don't do that myself at all. But there is such a thing as FREEDOM in this country to not have your activities scrutinized that way. Sorry OP, but I have to say mind your own business!

ben12

You obviously never heard of a little something called "September 11th."

Mopower

If we don't the copying of DVD's then the terrorists have won.

Tarantino

Al Queda hates DVD's.

Duder

To the original poster:

Let it go. Abuse of the system will always occur, and those in charge (I know several people at HV, in management and in corporate) are aware of it. Every single major corporation factors in abuse and loss in their yearly budget. It's about minimizing loss, not eliminating it, because that's impossible. If you try to do anything about it yourself, you won't help the problem, but will only hurt yourself and/or the company.

Now, if your manager or some other superior in the company approaches you and asks for your opinion on said issue, then feel free to offer it. Otherwise, it's severely overstepping your bounds.

Abob Teff

From somebody who had a bright future with that company:

Punch in. Do your job. Punch out. Forget about it. Collect your check.

Trust me, caring in that company (and most) gets you nothing. It is just a job.

(Told you I was feeling snarky.)

Numanoid

Gee, I wonder if this contingency ever crossed the minds of not only HV, but also BB, Netflix, etc., etc.

Nah...Patmann must have been the first guy to realize this.

maxpower

Does the OP have nothing better to do? What difference does it make if the renter is renting one or 6 movies a day? Either way, they could be copying them. And let's say they are not copying them...does that mean they will rent out the same movie over and over because they don't have it copied?

Are you jealous that those renters have the time to watch multiple movies a day while you are forced to watch them rent the movies?

renaldow

Go to the MPAA website and there's a link right on it to report bootlegging. Don't take this wrong but chances are whoever gets that report will laugh their ass off and show it to their friend. They already know people copy DVDs and VHS they rent. They also won't go after the small time home user. The MPAA is concerned with large bootleg manufacturers that will undersell the the new ROTK discs and take money out of their pockets than an average person copying discs for personal. This is because a bootleg manufacturer is undercutting their market and taking customers from them, that's a provable fact. The home bootlegger is not. It's harder to prove damages in court with a home bootlegger, and it's not cost effective to go after them.

Me007gold

best advice ever! just do you job and dont are about the company. unless they care about you (and most retail chains dont care about you)

calhoun07

PATMANN, seriously, what percentage of your customers do you think is doing this? I dobut all your members are coming back 3-5 times a day getting all these movies. Most people are honest, hard working folk who just want to get a few movies and watch them and not have to stress out about due dates. I used to work in a video store and the number of people we thought might be doing something like this was pretty miminal. Only one really bad customer was a gamer and would rent game after game after game on his game pass, coming up several times a day getting new games. Did we know what he was up to? You would have to be a moron not to, but you'd have to be a bigger moron to get involved as if it's you who is at stake here. The only people who should contact the anti piracy groups are the copyright holders. And unless these customers of yours are selling illegal copies and making money off of them, let it go, dude. And even if then, you might anonymously contact the studio in question being pirated and see what their policies are if you cannot sleep over this.

Personally, I don't rent stuff to copy it. I hate copied product anyway, and as a collector, I want the original item in it's original case and original art and inserts. From time to time, if there is a CD I want that is out of print, and the libary has it, I will run off a copy of it for myself. I guess you could say that's wrong, but I feel at least the rental place, or libary, got their legitimate transaction for it, and the blank media company got their money for their product, and that's one less price gouging seller I have to deal with on Ebay trying to get a copy.

chemosh6969

OMG!!! I am the person that Patman is talking about. I am on vacation from school and job and can sit at home and watch movies all day like I have been doing. Please don't turn me in.

retihsuhnt

I want to know what the OP thinks HV (HEC) is doing wrong. Your going to 'turn in' a company for renting movies? WTF?! HV's business model is all about the renting of movies.

People have been renting and copying movies since well before DVD and they will continue to do so well beyond.

You are a GSR at one of ~2000 HVs, its not anything that should concern you. What should concern you is the person that returns Debbie Does Dallas in the place of the first disk of Collateral.

jaeufraser

I don't really get the logic. A very small percentage of people with this MVP thing probably rent so many videos, and an even smaller percentage are copying everyone. You've got no evidence of anything, would have to point your finger at a lot of people who aren't doing anything wrong, and even then the MPAA wouldn't care...major bootleggers don't glean their supply from video stores I imagine.

Troy Stiffler

Ha. My dad used to do that with VHS. $2 rentals, and copied them onto a tape. We had a 3k movie collection. Three movies fit on a tape.

BigDan

I assume that the OP was thinking this person copying movies rather than watching them because he was coming back to the store quicker than he could potentially watch the movies. For example, if he rented two movies at 1pm and came back for another two movies at 3pm, it would be impossible for the renter to have watched the first two movies in the time between visits. Because a person can copy a DVD considerably faster than he can watch it, a logical inference would be that he was copying discs.

With VHS, if a person copied movies, it still usually took the running time of the movie to do it. So, it would be considerably harder to tell the difference between a renter who's watching the movies and a renter who's copying the movies.

Of course, I would bet that most people who copy, don't come back quickly enough to get more movies to be able to tell (like in my example).

whotony

patmann? isnt there already a patman on this board?

anyway, what the hell do you care what people are doing with the movies they rent.

what are you, the rent dvd's and take them home and watch them police?

did you think that maybe getting people into the store several times a day might be good for business?

the more times someone comes in
the more chances there are they will buy something,
like candy, soada or new or used movies.

really, you havent thought this through and you dont make any sense.