Wal-Mart Threatens Studios Over iTunes Sales

Y-Crate writes "It seems Wal-Mart is threatening retaliation against studios who decide to offer movies on iTunes. The Bentonville, AR retailer seems a bit miffed that someone would dare to undercut their prices. This wouldn't be the first time they've turned on a supplier for dealing with Apple." From the article: "Last year when Disney announced it would begin offering episodes of the hit shows 'Lost' and 'Desperate Housewives' on Apple's iTunes, the reaction of the world's largest retailer sent shockwaves through the entertainment industry. Wal-Mart, worried that offering the shows for viewing on iPods would cut into DVD sales at its stores, sent 'cases and cases' of DVDs back to Disney, according to a source familiar with the matter."

Comments

Wal*Mart is the devil.

[Roger Wilcox]

Any organization whose stated mission is to take over the world shouldn't arouse suspicion or surprise when they use leverage to win over those who are weaker than they.

Re:Whoa whoa whoa...

[betterunixthanunix]

Actually, Wal-mart does engage in anti-competitive practices, and does have a monopoly position. Problem is, nobody is filing a complaint, at least nobody big enough to matter; with Microsoft, big players like Sun and Apple were filing, so people noticed. Wal-mart's anti-competitive practices are parallel with Microsoft's, but in their business, that just means that small stores and local chains are ruined.

This thing with the movie studios is nothing new, Wal-mart engages in such tactics all the time, with all of their products. The basic, "if you sell to anything that competes with us, we will use our mass to hurt your business," tactic is something that Wal-mart is very good at, and is one of the main reasons they are capable of destroying the economies of entire towns. In this case, it won't be destroying a town's economy, it will just make it harder for Apple to offer their DRM downloads. This is where I am forced to ask myself which is worse, DRM DVD's or DRM downloads...what a wonderful choice to make. They wonder why people use BitTorrent.

Re:Good move for walmart

[sm62704]

No reason to put "evil" in quotes; they ARE evil by any definition of the word you can come up with. If you own walmart stock, you're evil, too.

And Everyone is Worried About Google...

[eno2001]

Sorry, but it looks like Wal-Mart is the more apparent threat to your freedoms than Google. I don't and WON'T shop at Wal-Mart unless they succeed at infiltrating my neck of the woods. But I doubt it. I live in an inner-ring suburb (probably too many black and poor people for their tastes) of a mid-sized city. And IF they do put one of their monstrous stores in the neighborhood, I'll bet they'll do what I've seen in other areas where there aren't more white folk than black folk... They'll put cops in the store (you don't see that in the burbs) and make sure the stock is of a lower quality compared to their suburban or boonie branches. Amazing that people rail on about the evils of Google while very few actually talk about the cancer that is Wal-Mart. Just like one of my high school classmates said back in the 90s, "Stop the 'Mart Bart"! Wal-Mart IS evil.