Ooops...

turns out DOESN'T exist.

Netflix isn't fighting back. They are picking a different fight that they think they can win. Netflix used to be a service that allowed you to rent MOVIES by mail. Their original content, tactic is a service that lets you watch TV SHOWS streaming. The two have only a cursory relation to each other.

The service of offering MOVIES for rent is turning out to be a complete failure on the streaming side, and people are lamenting the fact that Redbox is quickly become the best we can hope for when it comes to renting MOVIES.

I like Redbox for what it is, but it is less than what Netflix was before Netflix abandoned the market.

The DVD rental business did not fly under the radar. Nothing has changed in that landscape except that Netflix successfully crushed it's major rival. The old guard isn't fighting Netflix on the DVD front. There are no licensing fee problems associated with DVD rental. That is strictly a streaming problem.

If you are talking about the Netflix streaming service flying under the radar and now being fought, I would say that they were never under the radar, and it isn't that they are being fought harder. I would say that they are beating their heads against the wall thinking that the wall is just going to not be there the next time they slam their face forward. Streaming has never been a solution that competed directly against DVD rentals. Netflix keeps hoping that it will be, but it hasn't yet materialized, and given our copyright system, it isn't likely to ever materialize.

The reason your cheese is simply no longer there is that Netflix decided to throw out the good cheese because they want you to eat the much cooler cheese that it turns out exist.

No, you don't. Functioning in society based only on transactions that have been pre-defined is an extraordinary claim. You are going to have to provide some extraordinary evidence to be believed on that one. I have yet to meet a single person, or see credible proof that a human even exists that functions only based on guarantees. I'm not even convinced that it is possible to function in society by only making transactions based off pre-dictated guarantees. Are you really trying to claim that you consider it a free benefit when a restaurant doesn't hold your food in the warmer for an hour?

And, no. If you have to pay for it, it isn't free. Period.

They are no longer available because of the way that copyright works. With a disc, you can rent it as long as the disc exists. With streaming, you have to keep renegotiating the rights to stream. Netflix didn't recently remove all a ton of children's Nickelodeon programs because they wanted to. They did it because they no longer had a legal way to continue steaming them due to Copyright law.

No. You are simply a liar. I have never suggested that children do homework on a sidewalk. You just believe that if you lie hard enough it make you right.

And Netflix never will have a full selection for streaming. It is simply not something that they can control. Our copyright system doesn't allow for it. My prediction is that Netflix will end up like other TV Networks. They will have their own productions that may or may not do well, and then they will have a bunch of old crap that people may or may not want to watch. The idea that Netflix streaming will ever be on par with Netflix by mail (in it's heyday) is a non-starter.

Where has the USPS stopped delivering mail on Saturdays? I heard talk that they were thinking about it, but I still get mail every Saturday.

It is where all the movies are that the content providers have decided they don't want streamed.

That was definitely not their business model. For almost a decade, I would rarely keep a disc for more than a day. I would be well into the 'Heavy User' category. Netflix would receive my disc, send out my new movie the next day, and the day after that I would have the new movie. My father made the same claim as you about 'throttling'. When I looked into it for him, it turned out that even though he lived in a major metropolitan area, his mail was making an extra hop to a sub post office before delivery. This added both 1 day extra for Netflix to receive the disc, and an extra day for him to get a return disc.

I don't believe that throttling has ever happened at Netflix. People just became convinced it was happening to them because Netflix would give low volume users first pick of movies. Everyone would get a movie shipped out, but if a heavy user and light user wanted the same movie, the light user would get the movie, and the heavy user would get the second movie in their queue. This is not throttling, but lots of heavy users convinced themselves that it was.

Neither you nor Netflix need to make the first move. In theory the rights holders could make streaming viable, but in reality, the only way it would ever happen is if congress enacted mandatory licensing for video.

Exactly. The only way that streaming can work in the long run is if there is mandatory licensing.

Being annoyed by people in the first world having problems is a "first world problem".

I noticed this going on for a long time before I gave up on their disc based service. It seems like they no longer order anything but new release, popular movies, and they don't order as many as they used to. I had several situations where it became a running joke about how long titles were in my queue.

Star Wars Episode 1: > 18 months
Conan the Barbarian: > 2 years
Farscape Season 4 Disc 2 > 8 months

All of these movies are widely available.

As I have taught my children from the time that they first learned what money is.... If you have to give someone money to get their offer, it isn't free.

What is in Netflix's FAQ about their delivery times is only relevant when faced with a court of law. From a consumer's perspective, what you get for your money is what matters. When I go into a restaurant, they don't promise to bring my food hot, or in a timely manner. No where do they make that promise. If they have been doing a great job of bringing me my food hot and in a timely fashion for a decade, I will be a happy customer. If they make a decision to cut staff so that my food comes out cold and I have to sit for an hour waiting for it, then I will complain about the business. I will stop being a customer, and I will recommend others avoid the business as well. It doesn't matter whether what they promised.