So, my beloved Blockbuster Video is being sued by some parents who had rented a tape of Home Alone 3 for their child. Rather than sue for allowing them to rent a derivative, low-quality film like Home Alone 3 *, the parents are suing because, allegedly, at the end of the tape was 10 minutes of porno. While you or I might find this to be a swank bonus, these parents felt that it was inappropriate, and has said that Blockbuster has an obligation to "inspect, monitor and ensure the quality and propriety of all video products purchased by its customers."

Blockbuster corporate's response, as you might imagine, is not exactly in agreement with this idea, dancing around the truth (which would go like "it would be too expensive for us to do that") and instead blaming other customers, who, corporate says, have an obligation to return tapes "in the same condition [they were] given to them."

Of course, given the sheer quantity of videos and DVDs at any one store, QCing them all on any sort of regular basis is impossible. Manufacturing industries have computer-controlled QC mechanisms which inspect every product as it comes off the assembly line, tossing away ones which have even the slightest indictation of defectiveness. Blockbuster products come off the assembly line, but they soon go into the hands of customers and back into the hands of other customers, uncleaned, unsanitized, and unchecked for changes in quality or content.

Customers know this aspect of the rental buisness and don't seem to mind it; alternatives like on-demand digital movies and disintegrating DVDs haven't exactly put traditional rentailers out of buisness. (Although, since more people buy DVDs than bought VHS tapes, there has been an impact there; lots of people buy rather than rent DVDs.) So in many ways, these parents knew the risk. Besides, they could have rented a DVD -- you can't copy over those, despite what an ignorant customer insisted had happened to his rental of "Open Range" earlier tonight.

What is my point in all this? Nothing. Although a similar incident happened once at my store with a copy of Fight Club. To my knowledge, no one got sued, and the mysterious perpertrator was never identified....

* I'm kidding about the low quality of Home Alone 3. I thought it was very amusing and without all the ham-fisted 'emotional reunion' scenes. Maureen O'Hara and Macaroni Culkin had about as much chemistry as my college transcripts.