Netflix vs Blockbuster pt 2

We are long time Netflix subscribers (since 9-2001, which is sort of a memorable date for some reason), and obviously are Netflix supporters, but this patent thing is getting ridiculous.

BBC NEWS | Business | Netflix sues Blockbuster on DVDs California-based Netflix has two patents protecting its business, which lets subscribers pay a monthly fee and then rent out DVDs via its website.
It wants Blockbuster's similar service halted and the court to award damages.

...Netflix, founded in 1999, was one of the first companies to offer this service, and has a patent protecting the way it allows customers to select their films, get them sent out, and then return them for more.

Its second patent covers the way customers can keep the films for as long as they want without being charged extra and how they can rejig their list of preferred films.

Analysts said that it may prove tricky for Netflix, which has close to five million subscribers, to enforce their patents. Blockbuster wants its postal service to reach two million subscribers this year.

WSJ adds:

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, focuses largely on the online wish lists that prioritize the DVD desires of about 5.4 million people who subscribe to either Netflix or Blockbuster's Internet service.

Netflix also believes its patents cover perhaps its most popular feature -- the option of renting a DVD for an unlimited time without incurring late fees.

That change, introduced by Netflix seven years ago, became so popular that Blockbuster last year stopped charging late fees for tardy rental returns to its video stores. Dallas-based Blockbuster once pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars annually from those late fees.

“Blockbuster has been willfully and deliberately copying Netflix's business methods,” Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey said.

A second patent issued Tuesday to Netflix apparently triggered the lawsuit. Netflix believes the additional patent covers an even wider range of automated interaction with its customers.

Netflix hopes to obtain a court order that would force Blockbuster to change the way its online rental service operates or require the company to pay patent royalties -- a potentially huge bill, based on other recent patent disputes.

ok, I had to look - the first movies I rented back in Sept 2001 were

Requiem for a Dream