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Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick

Thu, Dec 20th 2001 3:32pm





Another Reason To Sign Up For Netflix

from the make-sure-to-return-those-videos dept

Weren't we just discussing reasons to sign up for NetFlix? Well, here's another. A woman in Pittsburgh was thrown in jail for a few days for not returning videos on time. She was held in jail for "theft of leased property" but not told what it was about for days. A judge finally released her when he found out what the case was all about. She may still have to go to trial. She claims she never rented the videos (the video store says she took out three rental videos in 1989 and never returned them - and they want their $190). Suddenly, a system like NetFlix where there are no penalities like "late fees" or "days in jail" sounds a lot more appealing...

2 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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  1.  

    Can this really happen?

    identicon
    Kevin Joyce, Dec 21st, 2001 @ 10:37am

    I mean at many video stores all they take is your name and address and don't even check ID. My sister had a coworker take movies out in her name and she found out about them when they asked for a late fee. What if something like this happened to the lady in 1989? I mean, sure, if she refuses to pay she can go to court and fight it out but there is no reason for someone to spend more than a few hours in prison for something like this. Thats just stupid. Could you imagine having to explain to work why you were out all week?

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    Why I canceled my NetFlix subscription

    identicon
    wonko, Dec 22nd, 2001 @ 6:50pm

    Overall, I was pretty happy with NetFlix's service, but after subscribing for eight months or so I ended up canceling because it just wasn't very convenient. NetFlix seems to have a hard time keeping movies in stock, which meant that I was basically paying $19.95 a month to be on a waiting list for most of the movies I wanted to rent.

    It's a lot easier (and cheaper) for me to just zip down the road to Hollywood Video once a week.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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