A factory in Oregon has managed to pull the wool over the eyes of consumers for eight months by selling regular DVDs as Blu-ray Discs.
One company, going by the name of Cine:def, realized that not everyone can tell the difference between the quality of high definition movies and flicks that were released in the bog standard DVD format many moons ago. While even the least tech savvy of people would likely notice if they were sold the Dark Knight in standard definition as opposed to Blu-ray, movies that warrant less concentration or attention would probably slip by unnoticed.
Capitalizing on this, Cine:def ran a scam that peddled both adult films and popular children’s movies in standard definition but boxed in Blu-ray packaging and sold at a considerably higher price. Beginning production in August 2008, Cine:def managed to raise $1.4 million in revenue by selling titles like Cinderella and Snow White to parents who were buying for their young children and unlikely to watch the movies themselves, as well as blue movies like the Debbie Does Dallas series and Muffy the Vampire Layer, to people who would likely not notice if their movies were as sharp they could have been because they were too, er, distracted.
The scam was uncovered when an unnamed Toshiba employee on business in Oregon called the company’s toll-free number to see if he could fast track several titles for delivery to ensure he had his purchases before flying home. He noticed that the quality of his entertainment was no where close to what he had seen with HD DVD versions of the same movies.
The factory workers are pleading ignorance, while the director claims the scam was an endeavor to bring high quality entertainment to those who could not necessarily afford Blu-ray movies.
“The way we see it, everyone should have the right to be a part of the bleeding edge technology that is fast becoming our standard format,” said founder and CEO, Terry Bull. “Given the current economic crisis, not everyone can afford to replace their movie libraries and eat the cost of their old ones. We’re offering people the chance to believe that no matter how bad things are financially, they are still in keeping with the current technological trends,” he continued. “Besides, is there really a difference, anyway?”
Terry Bull and Financial VP for the company, Joe King, will face charges of fraud and false advertising in front of a grand jury on April 23rd. It is not yet known if the production companies who have had their copyrights infringed upon will press charges.
What do you guys think of this story? We find it hard to care. While we will concede there is a difference between standard definition and high def, there is no Blu-ray drive present in Apple products. God Steve Jobs himself declared the devices a "bag of hurt" and ever since then, we've found we've been using our own less and less.
