Lovefilm

I use Lovefilm to get DVD rentals. I may have mentioned this in the past. I am aware that there are new technologies coming in all the time and that soon I will be able to download and/or stream films straight on to my computer, but at the moment postal rentals are working well enough for me thank you very much. Until now.

Some months ago I put a couple of films on my Lovefilm list, 'Public Enemies' and 'Inglorious Basterds' both came out a fair amount of time ago now and I still have not seen them. For months now the two films have sat at the bottom of my Lovefilm list with the caption 'unavailable for rental' listed alongside. Initially I thought that this was due to them not being released yet, but I have since found out that this is due to Lovefilm being unable to rent out certain films from Universal Studios. It transpires that Universal are only allowing certain retailers to rent out their films, so if I want to see either of these titles I'm going to have to start an account with Blockbuster. I am not going to sign up to a second rental company just to see a couple of films, Blockbuster costs £1 extra a month for the same service as Lovefilm provide. Also, I have no intention of allowing them to get away with what is effectively blackmail against me - since if I switch to them that's what they've done.

Apparently Lovefilm are not paragons in this regard either, since they have also recently negotiated a deal to have exclusive rights to the French film 'Mesrine' - see this article in today's Guardian (which prompted me to write about this).

So this is the 'choice' that the film industry is offering me, the 'choice' of having to sign up to a specific provider or going without. How long before the film industry realises that it is divisive and destructive to carve up the film rental rights between providers? This practice will only end up driving otherwise honest film-goers into the realm of the illegal downloads.

I am hoping to borrow a copy of each of these films off someone at some point if anyone can oblige...