I love my Netflix. Three years ago, I gave up cable, but we kept our Netflix. Now they have the Watch Now service that is unlimited. (How's that Mac OS X support coming?) I saw a story this morning from Newsweek that was linked from the Hacking Netflix site about people using Netflix in "creative" ways.
Netflix of course doesn't like the practice of using their personal service for profit. Well, Netflix, this could be an additional service offering. Why not create business plans that allow small rental companies to source those obscure titles from you? I won't pretend to understand the legal wrangling that would of course have to happen, but what company is in a better position right now to have a go at this plan?
As for libraries, couldn't we cut them a break? Public libraries provide a service for the common good, and in small towns especially, their budgets are constantly shrinking. If a library lends a title from a Netflix account, Netflix still only ships it twice. It is also likely that these library lenders take longer to cycle a DVD. That translates to fewer DVDs than I watch with my home account. Helping a community's public library...that sounds like a positive PR/marketing opportunity for the company to me.
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