Slashdot Mirror
Tron Special Edition On Sale January 15th
Muddie writes: "OnVideo.org reminded me that on January 15 , Disney is releasing the "Tron 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition" (1982) on DVD and VHS. Directed by Steven Lisberger, the film stars Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner and Barnard Hughes. The 2 disc DVD set contains the remastered film with commentary by Lisberger, producer Donald Kushner and visual effects supervisors Harrison Ellenshaw and Richard Taylor, a new 75-minute "making-of" documentary "The Making of Tron", deleted scenes, original soundtrack music deleted from the film and more all for $29.99.
Check out all the happy details at Amazon's link"
Well if you like Wendy Carlos or Journey, it is a great nastalgia blast. I loved the former at that time, but loathed the latter.
Sounds like a good buy. Wish all DVDs had a copy of the music soundtrack too.
... I wonder if the DVD disc leaves a bright trail of light behind it if you throw it...
In Soviet Russia, sig types you!
...of me dreaming about what goes on inside my Vic 20.
I wanted to know how to access the little tron bike game.
I was upset.
I was also like...8 or so.
Imdb also advertises the release of the sequel to Tron, Tron 2.0. Hope it's not a flop
Imperium et libertas
Autocracy and freedom
Wendy rocks.
That was one of the coolest musical scores that I have heard in a long time.
Very orginal, cross between eletronic and classical. Timeless.
III.IIVIVIXIIVIVIIIVVIIIIXVIIIXIIIIIIIIVIIIIVVIII
Is there really that much that they can put on here that beats out the plain edition? It's not like this is Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. Is there that big a fan market for this movie? I have the plain edition DVD, and that's enough.
I can't imagine after all these years that there is a lot of extra material to add. The movie wasn't so popular that people sqirrelled away stuff from it for this eventuality. I don't see them coming up with much interesting footage, either "extra" or "making of".
Don't forget that Friday is Hawaiian shirt day.
does anyone else find it funny that amazon has a "used price" for this movie directly above the paragraph explaining that the movie isn't even released yet?
maybe it's just their patented one-click time-travel system.
I hope this "Special Edition" includes the French audio track that the regular edition from a couple years back included. This movie makes far more sense in French. It's too weird in English. Bit saying "oui" and "non" makes more sense, I think.
Cryptnotic
My other first post is car post.
yes...we see the connection. But the "all for $29.99" with the link to buy it is pretty wrong.
I could understand if announced the features and had a link to the studio's page about it, but this is pretty much a blatant advertisement. I wouldn't be surprised if Muddie worked for Amazon or the studio that is releasing it.
Why pay for a banner ad when you can get way more attention by posting it as a news story?
"Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos!"
I'll re-post an Anonymous Coward submission from yesterday. I'm not taking credit, but it applies again:
Slashdot (to MPAA): You fucking fascists. We hate you.
MPAA: But look at these shiny colors!
Slashdot: Oooh! How much?
Any computer geek who is bashing this movie obviously hasn't been around that long. Yes the movie was a financial flop as it was over the heads of 99.9% of the people who might have seen it when it was released in 1982, but the fact remains that a majority of its plot holds true to what the internet is today. Heck, I bet you could draw great parallels between Tron and the open source movement. Replace the MCP with Microsoft, attempting to squash all competition. Place the users and their programs seeking a free system, up against the evil MCP, and voila. Yes, the special effects are pitiful by todays standards, yes the acting isn't that great, but as a whole, the movie was and still is a great movie for computer geeks to watch.
Tron was one of the first movies to use computer graphics. /. is a computer community. See the connection?
Ahhhhh, I see now, the computer connection. In that case, I suggest the following the /. with good taste:
Wargames [First modem]
Lawnmower Man 1&2 [The second one is even better!]
Jurrasic Park [first mention of a UNIX BOX!]
Hackers [First realistic portayal of everyday hackers]
Independence Day [First virus upload to alien mothership]
Swordfish [First demonstration of how the average programmer codes & a badguy's last name is Torvalds]
Anything with "VR" in the title
And many many more! Yay computers in movies!
I'm I the only one who finds the practice of releasing a "vanilla" DVD, then releasing a "extra groovy" DVD six months or a year later totally annoying?
One more reason to rent-rip-burn. Bastards.
-Peter
Trn was a great movie for kids and the lame effects of that time. but it would have been better and even could have been a rival to many other movies at that time if it wasn't a Disney production... come on there was no guts, violence or any sex in it...that would have been cool seeing them getting bitwise... ok ok....
the problem is that they watered the movie down and dumbed it down..
although you want a bad disney sci-fi movie? rent The Black Hole.... oh man that one sucked.... and I had the Toys and action figures from that.... Maximillion was cool though...
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
They should include the old arcade video game as a DVD-ROM extra! That'd make my buy it. Actually 4 mediocre games in 1, that became more than the sum of it's parts, it was kinda fun. There was a light cycle game, a game where you shot spiders (though I don't think they were internet spiders back then), a breakout-esque game where you had to break through the cylinder to the MCP, and one more that I can't remember right now. It had the movie soundtrack, and that was kind of cool for a video game back in the day.
Don't forget that Friday is Hawaiian shirt day.
I just bought Natural Born Killers , and it advertised "Deleted Scenes" but thoes scenes wernt in the movie, they were in a seperate menu, and some of them would have helped the movie. in Gladiator same thing.. the Delted out takes cant be made part of the viewing experiance yet add to the movie. Snatch on the other hand allowed me to add the scenes into the movie. So what will Tron allow me to do?
The More Knowledge you have the Luckier you Get- J.R. Ewing
Is it me or does the Amazon link have a "refer" parameter in it. Saaaaay.... you wouldn't be posting this to boost your Amazon Associate sales would you?
"Al Gore... This guys a real visionary. His favorite movie is tron for Christsake!" -- Dennis Miller
I am not a number! I am a man! And don't you
*cough* What about David Warner? He's the greatest villain actor since .. uh.. John Colicos.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
The idea that programs live a life inside a computer is pretty darn clever and not "dry" at all. Besides our whole idea of what cyberspace is supposed to look like derives from Tron (neon, grids, etc). Granted, I'd dump the whole nonsense about Flynn's arcade and the love triangle if I were making the movie.
Note also that there were funky TRON toys and a TRON video game.
My definition for advertising:
/.ers probably have fond memories of Tron they'd be interested to know they can pick this up.
Anything that builds product awareness.
This means any news posted any time is advertising. The court case against Microsoft is/ was advertising. Katz' review of Orange County was advertising. Admittedly this is a little more blatant, but I'd argue since a lot of
No sig for you.
Everytime I hear anything about this movie I remember what Dennis Miller said about Al Gore... "This man is the Vice President?! His favorite movie is 'Tron' for fucks-sake!"
Oh that will cost me some karma.
An ambitious hacker (Tom Hanks) transports himself into his Windows XP Home Edition computer to pull off the ultimate hack: to free Internet Explorer from Windows. Along the way he becomes attached to a flighty email virus (Meg Ryan) and the two are chased by the Matrix's Agent Smith as they are shuttled from computer to computer around the world. Can he find his Passport home?
Supposedly the DVD will contain deleted scenes of Hanks gaping at all the porn on people's computers and a 30 minute documentary about how difficult it was for him to lose his tan for the part.
</SARCASM>
I agree with your criticisms of the script and story, but I think Tron is best remembered for its art direction, costume work, and production design. It took a page from the German expressionists and translated it into a technological era. Not an easy thing to do, and something that really hasn't caught on: most of the aesthetics of SF film are either of the Blade Runner grunge variety or the super-clean 2001: A Space Odyssey stripe. Tron translated the aesthetics of the arcade onto the silver screen.
It's kinda funny, I picked this nickname for Slashdot in a moment of sillyness, and hadn't seen the movie in quite a few years, but I since bought the DVD and found that I actually like the movie much more as an adult than I did as a kid. I guess I'll have to get the new deluxe set and give my old DVD to my cousins.
I submitted this article from the San Francisco Chronicle about the anniversary last week (rejected, naturally). It has a nice discussion about the film's creation and influence.
I would be fine with a Katz review of Tron in recognition of the re-release on DVD, but a link to Amazon (with a referrer id...this guy will $1.50 per sale that amazon makes) plus the words "all for $29.99" is over the top. Just tell us that there is a new DVD release of the movie and point us to the movie studio's page about it. I'm sure everyone on slashdot who has fond memories of the movie is fully capable of finding an online retailer who's happy to sell it to them.
All I'm saying is that this is blatant advertising and they should have done something more understated like this.
Random note:
Anytime I post with a subject that ends in "!!!" someone always mods it "Troll" When my posts end in "..." they're usually modded "Interesting"
"Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos!"
You know, you'd think with Disney's constant backing of DRM, as well as basically funding the SSSCA, that /. would encourage a boycott of them, and not encourage supporting them, regardless of what products they have to offer.
/. can and should be a place where actions start. If anyone else feels the same way, please make your voices heard, or at least contact me.
I would love Tron on a collectors DVD as much as the next geek, but until Disney starts respecting our rights, I won't be buying it. Mod me down if you want, but I feel that
who is the co-author of the screenplay, is Alan Kay's (Smalltalk, Xerox PARC, etc.) wife. There are a lot of obscure references to Alan and PARC in TRON. Alan even made a prototype "monitor in a desk" later on at Apple.
Alan went on to work for Disney for a while, recently departing.
:) That's what inquiring minds would like to know!
See deleted scenes
So lets have a story promoting not only the MPAA and the advancement of DVDs, but link to the sale of it on Amazon!
You could have at least linked to 800.com or something.. GO SLASHDOT!
Free Mac Mini
You know the screenwriter hasn't "gotten it" when the computer's OS terminates each interactive session by typing or saying (in a pretentious synthetic voice):
"End of Line"
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
It didn't come close to blade runner, 2001 or videodrome
:)
Wow, Videodrome. Now THAT was a wacked out movie. I keep that one up there with Santa Sangre and Naked Lunch. My father-in-law absolutely loved Tron so I'll be getting this for his collection. I remember it from when I was a kid, but not all that well. I do remember kicking ass in Tron Discs at Spaceport, however
Intelligent Life on Earth
Yes, it drives me absolutely nuts.
Disney's marketing practices thoroughly enrage me. When I first got a Disney DVD and it made me watch Disney home video ads before my movie, I was immediately pissed off.
I buy a lot of DVDs. There are far more old movies that I want on video than I can afford to buy at any given time, and I have no particular order that I feel I need to buy them in. So, if a studio makes nice releases of their movies on DVD, I'm inclined to look for movies from them next time. If they make lousy releases, I'm inclined to look elsewhere.
So Disney is pretty low on my purchase priority list. Every time I see a Disney DVD in the store, or on Amazon, that I'm interested in, I think "Hmm, I'd like to have that movie, but it'll have ads on it, and they'll probably come out with a deluxe edition in six months anyway. I'll get it some other time." And I buy two Warner Brothers DVDs instead because they're cheap.
One scene you may expect to see on the new DVD is shown here: http://www.tronfan.com/deleted/ds1.html Also, this answers the "no sex" complaint posted earlier...
TO get technical "The Black Hole" came out in 1979. Though it was a flop financially, it really is a rather dark movie for a Disney film. Especilly the scene near the end where where the mad scientist character Dr Zarkov and the robot Maximillian merge. There is also a scene that looks like a funeral procession in Hell.
I can't wait!
so buy it elsewhere...personally, I always use these guys. right now, Tron is only $21.59, a 39% savings.
Actually, The concepts set forth in neuromancer (which, in the copy I have, shows the earliest publishing date as 1984) were first introduced in his short story works, notably "Johnny Mnemonic" and "Burning Chrome", of which at least one was published in 1978 or 79. I cant find my copy of that particular collection, unfortunately, but I'm fairly certain that is the case.
Besides, the concepts set forth in Tron weren't exactly what we would call cyberspace...it was really just a personification of all those 0s and 1s (main character aside).
when all is said and done, all a man has left are his blades and his honor.
You know, I was riding in the car today with two Malaysians, an African, and a New Zealander. We were talking about Zone X DVDs.
Turns out, one of the Malaysians purchased a 100% bonified good DVD (Final Fantasy, I think) and couldn't play it in his DVD player. The reason? His DVD player is region-free.
He commented that the pirated versions of the movies play just fine.
Then I said, and this really surprised myself: "I would like to be a DVD/CD pirate. No, not to make lots of money, but it seems like the right thing to do."
When I realised that I was serious, and that it really truly *IS* the right thing to do. Someone needs to ensure that when a guy buys a player and some media, that it will actually play.
What sort of idiots would allow a situation where someone can buy a player legitimately, buy some media legitimately, and not be able to use it? Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
fifth sigma, inc.
The irony here is thick. Tron, the only movie where the bad guy was ICE, an intrusion countermeasures routine written by a huge evil corporation, is now released on a video format protected by... intrusion countermeasures... developed by a huge evil corporation.
If Bill Gate's house bluescreens tomorrow pinning him under the refrigerator till he asphyxiates, I don't think the irony would get any thicker.
--
What happens when you outlaw guns
I'm going to take slight exception to your "first's" claim here. Star Trek, The Next Generation. They uploaded a virus to take out the Borg!
Have you compiled your kernel today??
Almost sounds like you're talking about Star Wars...insert Harrison Ford where your Jeff Bridges comment goes.
Was anyone else incredibly pissed that Tron lost an Oscar to Gandhi for *BEST COSTUME*???!?!!
I was. That was the turning point. From then on, I knew the oscars were a complete sham.
Come on; a bunch of freakin' sheets beat out the most yummy high tech other worldly costume design to have ever graced the big screen?
I seem to recall a "making of" special that aired on TV about the time the film was released. Is that the one that's included, or is this a new one?
And how many folks here remember "Automan"? A TRON ripoff, if there ever was one, at least for SFX.
Oh yeah, if you have the original DVD, check out the plot summary on the back cover. Read closely, and you should get a chuckle out of the error you find there. Wait..., maybe it isn't an error. :)
That light you see at the end of the tunnel might be from an oncoming train.
Darth Vader, pointing to Boba Fett: "Et pas de disintegrations!"
Years after seeing that, it still makes me laugh.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Why not? Technology has advanced a lot since it was made, why are the editors the only ones who get to have fun? Re-render the whole thing, and replace that old tech with new stuff. I mean, for pity's sake, we have texture-mapping now!
Edith Keeler Must Die
No credit for David Warner? He was the Master Control Program for goodness sakes!
If Star Trek wasn't around to give us the Borg, Slashdot would instead be depicting Gates as the MCP.
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
the Final Fantasy movie???
Source: Burning Chrome, 1987 edition published by Ace.
Proteus' Child
Doko ni datte; hito wa, tsunagette iru.
The DVD includes the cut love scene.
The video game is available for MAME.
Oddly, this does not seem to hold true for 80's era video games, many of which still have very compelling gameplay despite the now-dated graphics. It's a pity that by the time those legally hit the public domain, there won't be anything left of them.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Bruce Boxleitner isn't the only Tron/B5 connection. Peter Jurasik, B5's Londo, is in it too.
Wow, looks like its time to rescind those EFF and GNU donations.
On the contrary, whenever I buy anything produced by a member of RIAA or MPAA, I make a donation to EFF matching the product's retail price. I learned about this from another Slashdot reader. Call it "penance" if you will.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Yeah, it's late in teh discussion and no one would see this if I didn't attach it to a highly moderated comment... so sue me...
GLTRON
With Linux, Win32, MacOS and OSX versions available... woohoo!
You know you're a scifi geek when you recall that the 1976 Doctor Who story "The Deadly Assasin" features a part in which the hero and villian enter into a virtual world that exists within the ultra-mega-super-duper computer that their people have and face off in deadly combat.
Buy.com has it for $2 cheaper... and if you like, you can click on my page before clicking through to buy.com... (yes a shameless plug)...
Looking for any old 8-bit Heathkit/Zenith software/hardware - http://heathkit.garlanger.com
Being very young in the "IBM" era and only realizing what was going on then now that I am older I am absolutely amazed at the atnti-IBM undertones of sci-fi in the era. A few examples:
MCP = IBM in Tron
HAL + 1 letter is IBM; 2001 A Space Odessy
BladeRunner's director Ridley Scott also did the 1984 Apple commercial -- a blatant anti-IBM theme
What other examples are there? Why don't we see such anti-MS undertones in scifi today? Is MS PR that much better then IBM PR at the time? The only example that I can think of was that not-so-popular movie "Anti-Trust" which was a MS satire complete with cameos from Scott McNeay and Miguel de Icaza.
I was a geek
I was working for a video game company
The whole company took the afternoon off to see the premier of the film.
I didn't yet hate Disney
But even then, back in the summer of '82, I thought it was a lame movie. Why would I want to spend thirty bucks on it now?
I guess it's like every Star Trek cover picture on TV Guide -- if it's got geek appeal, it sells. Sad.
...Nothing interesting here. Just move along...
He commented that the pirated versions of the movies play just fine.
Why? Because they're region free as well. I'd bet my bottom dollar that he probably has an early Apex player. Those (as well as a few others) had the ability to turn region coding on and off at will (you can change it in the Setup menu).
The catch came when RCE (Region Coding Enhancement) became the norm a few years ago. I remember clearly that one of the first titles to utilize this feature was The Patriot (let's take note that Final Fantasy was released by the same company, Columbia TriStar). If you player didn't specifically state it was region 1 hardware-wise, it wouldn't play the DVD.
You know what the real irony of this is? Is that if you change your Apex player (or whatever brand, mind you) back to Region 1, you could fix the problem and play the DVD.
Then I said, and this really surprised myself: "I would like to be a DVD/CD pirate. No, not to make lots of money, but it seems like the right thing to do."
Christ, what kind of ego-driven self-serving comment is that? Yeah, you wouldn't make money off of it, you'd just do it out of the kindness of your heart. It's comments like these that tell not only your age, but your maturity.
Instead of paying the studios and filmmakers for their work you'd rather rip them off. If actors/directors/writers/etc don't sell units, don't sell tickets, don't move these products, they're out of jobs. So please excuse me if I don't jump on the soapbox and proclaim that stealing is somehow beneficial to the artist(s).
What sort of idiots would allow a situation where someone can buy a player legitimately, buy some media legitimately, and not be able to use it? Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
Here's a question: what kinds of DVD idiots are
a) too dumb to turn the player back to its proper region (which will fix the problem)
b) buying pirated versions in the first place?
You can yell from the mountaintops how great it is to steal from people but the fact remains: there are plenty of folks who live off those DVD dollars. Movies aren't released around the world simultaneously (albeit a few of the bigger blockbusters), so sometimes a Region 1 DVD will appear in the states before it's even in theaters across the Atlantic/Pacific.
Example: Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back won't be released in Australian theaters until March. The Region 1 DVD comes out in February. Now if all those Australians get pirated copies of that great (and hilarious) film, who gets paid and who gets the shaft? Kevin Smith and his cronies for their hard work and great talent, or a money-grubbing hack who wants to earn a buck and cry "Free speech!" everytime someone accuses him of stealing?
People can complain about region coding all they want, but the solid evidence supporting the practice is right here.
As a newly-minted MCSE, I will give voice to something I have always wondered about but never asked about...was the title Microsoft Certified Professional, with the initials MCP, an in-joke about Tron and the perception of Microsoft as The Evil Empire?
End of line.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
What no mention on /. about the release of the Buffy the Vampire Season 1 dvd's coming out on Jan. 15?
First, I loved Tron in the theatres. Yes, I'm that old. But this is like the second time in 2 days that /. has gone completely giddy about a classic motion picture industry release onto DVD. The problem? We're all whipped up into a happy frenzy about the very same industry which the vastly-prevailing attitude here hates for disrespecting basic fair use rights. If I recall correctly, Disney was behind Tron. Now, isn't Disney one of the worst offenders when it comes to denying fair use? All I'm saying is if you go out waving the Disney flag and buy this DVD, think twice before poo-poo'ing the rest of the MPAA and rights-management(/denial) industry.
Hey, that's a great idea!
And while we're at it, let's go back to some other classic movies, like, say, Star Wars, and slather them with new modern-day CGI, and even rewrite some scenes that we've decided we don't like!
And let's colorize Citizen Kane!
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
No no, don't colorize it, re-cut it so it's in chronological order.
(Aparently a film class did this once and report that it's pretty watchable in that condition)
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
Ha ha! Jeff Bridges is Bill Gates! Little geek who takes on the huge corporation and wins, spreading computing to the masses! Then, when he gets money and power, he becomes the evil corporation! How ironic! We need a sequel to Tron where Jeff Bridges, now the megalomaniac ruler of a global computer corporation, sends himself into the Internet to destroy a virtual Penguin program nibbling at his empire. We can have him meet his old Tron program (guarding some archaic server somewhere), wistfully remember his idealistic youth, and then DESTROY IT for not being compatible with .NET. See the Penguin riding a motorcycle through the grid, being chased by giant Jeff Bridges. Ha! Think of the possibilities!
The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
Actually, Tron was about computers, but used standard cinematic special effects. There was no CG used in Tron at all, which was one of the funny things about the movie. Despite looking like there were computer graphics everywhere, there were actually computer graphics nowhere.
I think...I think it's in my basement. Let me go upstairs and check. -M.C. Escher (1898-1972)
Um, what is important is not the cosmology per se. It's the moral universe portrayed, the relationship between the individual, the world at large, and the choices they have to make. And the fact that Flynn has to disabuse Tron of the idea of the Users' infallability also suggests that the filmmaker was reserving true diety elsewhere.
Please do not patronize the sponsor of the extension of the copyright term.
.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
I'm really off topic here. He's talking about copyright violation as a joke, and I respond to his comment, and I'm off topic. Haha.
Anyway, this guy's been modded up to 5 or something. It's not a good view; a valid view, maybe, but not a good one, I don't think.
GPL Deconstructed
Wow, you're just slacking there.
I mean, hell, if I were to pick up the special version of Army of Darkness, I'd have 4 copies of just that one. (VHS, VHS Special Ed., DVD, DVD Special Ed.)
I don't know my exact count, but well, that's why one of my friends talked me into reviewing DVD special features:
Dogma (sp.ed vs. regular)
One of these days, we might actually post some of the other reviews. (comparing both versions of The Princess Bride, Dune [Lynch vs. SciFi], The Holy Grail, etc.)
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
It's not a matter of credit/no credit, it's a matter of noting that the gnostic narrative seems to enjoy popularity in some periods of time, and not others. My personal theory is that a combination of an economic boom with a feet of clay, and the rise of a media monoculture that was responsible for virtually all the information that most people were getting (AOL Time Warner Disney ABC MSNBC) contributed to a vague sense that we were being fed our world, rather than living it - hence Matrix, Truman Show, Dark City and the like. Once the bubble burst, escaping from the real was no longer a horror, but instead a bonafide relief, and fantasy came charging in to provide it: Harry Potter, LOTR and the like.
Could you point out where I said I wanted to take anything away from them? That I want to be in charge of their release process?
I'm not saying it should be illegal, I am saying that it is not a good way to relate to your customer. They are businesses, I am a customer. Their actions piss me off. That's bad business.
Now, I am making a leap trying to guess their motives from their actions, but I suspect that they do this because they know some people will buy the SAME DAMN MOVIE twice. I payed full price for the DVD, why shouldn't I get the fancy-schmancy version made from a newly restored digital master? 'Cause I fucked up and bought the DVD in the first place.
This is clearly different than wanting to use someones bathroom. I BOUGHT THE FUCKING DVD.
At some level I feel like when I buy a DVD of a movie that is >10 years old it is/should be the difinative version. The studios clearly disagree. Fine, we're back to rent-rip-burn because I, as a customer, don't feel I'm getting value when I open my wallet to the SOBs.
So, your point that it is my choice, is well taken, but was never in question.
-Peter
The only statement you made that made me fire off is the 'rent-rip-burn' statement you made.
Just because you don't like the way they release the product (DVD then SE DVD 4 years later) doesn't give you the right to 'rent-rip-burn'.
They should offer a rebate program, but it's ultimately their choice not to, and if they don't, you shouldn't go around renting, ripping, and burning, because you did buy the special features. You bought the original DVD. You aren't 'entitled' to a SE.
As I mentioned in my first reply, it very well could be said that the success of the first release fuels the release of the SE, and if you hadn't purchased the first DVD, then I wouldn't be able to buy a SE DVD. I thank you for your sacrifice. As I said before, you didn't have to buy the 1.0 release. You could have waited, four years ago, and said 'I'll wait for the SE DVD release'.
Anyway, you did find the flaw/error in the bathroom analogy; there was no contract involved between the owner of the house and me. Analogies are never perfect. The point of the analogy is that the homeowner-IP owner has the right to offer the service/product in any manner they see fit, and the visitor-consumer has the right to take advantage of offered services and products, but above and beyond that both sides are bound by social law, contract law, and copyright law.
GPL Deconstructed
You're still missing the point.
Yes, they have the right to offer their product any why they want. But that doesn't make screwing your BEST customers (the ones that run out and by the DVD when it comes out) a good idea.
As for rent-rip-burn, "IP" is largely a steaming pile. But that aside, if the game is "Let's see how many times we can get Peter to pay to watch this movie." then I feel justified in playing "Let's see how many times I can watch this movie on one payment." That is to say, I feel like I'm being treated as a wallet, not a customer, and that they made it adversarial. That's they way they made it, I'm just playing along.
They are ignoring "free market law" and paying the penalty.
-Peter
IP is artificial, I grant you that. It doesn't mean it isn't the law.
Note, if it's an unjust law, then feel free to break it, as long as you're willing to suffer the consequences of breaking the law up until the very moment they change it. That's part of the burden of defining and obeying personal beliefs above common/group beliefs.
You're only being treated like a wallet as long as you're willing to act like a wallet. They aren't making it adversarial, you are. It's your interpretation of the situation that makes it so confrontational.
As for 'free market law', my understanding is that a free market is defined as one where supply and demand are unregulated or with minor regulations.
The penalty of abusing or ignoring free market laws is excess supply and insufficient profit, or deficit in supply and insufficient profit.
All it sounds like is you using this as an excuse to justify your behavior. Note, some people do think there is nothing wrong with 'rent-rip-burn' because they did pay for the rental, why should they have to pay a second time, or a third time, or a fourth time? Just archive it!
Anyway, part of my point was that without sales of the original DVD, you wouldn't have a SE DVD to complain about in the first place; they wouldn't have made enough to even consider releasing a SE, as the first wasn't profitable.
You can't play both sides and expect to win, the universe really doesn't work that way.
Note, again, your money. If you don't like the practice, just don't buy the DVD in the first place. You bought Tron. Largely because of you and everyone else who bought Tron, I suspect, the Tron SE gets released. Again, my thanks to you, but that's the way it works. Want to change that? Rent-rip-burn will change that because the studios will never sell enough DVDs in the first place to warrant a SE release.
GPL Deconstructed