(1) I agree with people criticizing Salon for the sub-head of this story. "Trouble is, Netflix won't let you leave" is total bullshit if you actually read the story. People who don't read the story will be left with the impression that Netflix is doing something nasty like continuing to charge customers' credit cards or making them pay a cancellation fee. Instead, what Netflix is doing is merely not letting people transfer their accumulated information, which is part of Netflix's proprietary software. Big freaking deal. Any moron can copy-and-paste their Netflix queue into Notepad and then add those movies to their Blockbuster queue. And who really cares if their movie ratings are saved? It isn't Netflix's responsibility to turn over all that data at a moment's notice.

(2) Blockbuster's past corporate behavior is something everybody should consider. Remember the flap over "No Late Fees" signs when in fact they were still charging late fees? I turned in a video on time but the staff didn't log it and I was charged a late fee, and this happened on multiple occasions. Blockbuster even had the obnoxious practice of making their lateness deadline at noon, which meant that if you rented a video on Tuesday night for two days, and turned it in on Thursday afternoon, you were charged a late fee. Dicks!

I remember that I got a Blockbuster late fee for something-or-other that I either turned in an hour late or that wasn't late at all. After dealing with their late-fee garbage one time too many, I stopped going to Blockbuster in favor of driving a few extra blocks to rent movies at Hollywood Video (which had a slightly better selection and a slightly more friendly late-fee policy). I still owed Blockbuster about $3 on the late fee, though, and after about a month I started getting little late-fee notices in the mail. Blockbuster was threatening to send a collection agency after me to get the $3 I owed it! I got these little notices every freaking week, each one of them written with a threatening tone. They probably wasted $3 in postage just telling me to pay the late fee.

Finally, I wrote a letter to Blockbuster informing them that I thought their late-fee policy was ridiculous, and that I was pretty certain that I hadn't turned in the video late at all. I also mentioned that the staff seemed to make mistakes regarding the late fee all the time, and that since this had been happening so much, I had decided to give my business to Hollywood Video. After writing this letter, I never heard from Blockbuster again. They apparently canceled my late fee, but they didn't bother telling me about it.

In conclusion, fuck Blockbuster.

From the article: "Blockbuster also does not offer a way to export your queue and ratings to other services."

So Blockbuster "won't let you leave" either.

Salon, please fire the idiot responsible for the story description.

(1) You were told, "We don't get special versions nor do we ask the studios to make special versions. If we get a movie, it's the studio version." The next paragraph, that Blockbuster does not carry NC-17 films, contradicts this statement. The NC-17 version is usually the "studio version," so how do you resolve this contradiction? And yes, Blockbuster DOES carry edited versions, and yes, these versions were made due to pressure. Notice that the woman you spoke to speaks only in the present tense -- she says nothing about what Blockbuster's past policies were. I can tell you because I worked in the industry at the time and I vividly remember reading articles to the effect that Blockbuster had specifically pressured the studios to provide watered-down versions of certain films. Try looking in the archives of Variety for starters. Focus your attention on Peter Jackson's "Dead Alive" for one example. I will look forward to your apology to your readers.

(2) You completely dodged the real problem with your article, which is that its description was factually incorrect and borderline libelous. It stated that "Netflix won't let you leave" in a manner that made it sound like users were prevented from closing their accounts. What you really were saying is that the information was not portable, but only readers who read down to your parenthetical statement were made aware that BLOCKBUSTER IS EQUALLY TO BLAME FOR ALSO NOT BEING PORTABLE. In other words, you were citing a Netflix policy you didn't like as a reason why Blockbuster was more attractive when Blockbuster had the same negative policy! You can't get around the fact that this did a disservice to your readers, was mis-informative, and was illogical to the point to being dishonest. I think it is severely troublesome that you did not bother to address this error of judgment in your follow-up. Do you have some issue with admitting a mistake was made?