You sneaky, clever, magnificent bastards.

You won’t believe what Redbox is doing!  See, they’re fighting a running court battle with the studios over a thirty-day embargo between when a movie comes out on video and when Redbox can stock it in their machines.   Naturally, Redbox doesn’t want to wait that long, and as it turns out, they don’t have to!

Apparently, the terms of the embargo essentially forbid the use of the studios’ box art…but there’s no way they can forbid the rental of a purchased item thanks to the First Sale Doctrine.  So Redbox is making their OWN art and using that to market the available rental items!

Analysts say that the art in question is “substantially” altered, so the chances of any lawsuits coming out of this are pretty much nonexistent, though I look for the studios to try regardless.

Way to beat the system, Redbox, and may your embargo-busting carry on unchallenged!

Related posts:

1. Trouble For Redbox: The Embargo Is Holding
2. Redbox Providing Competition To Netflix
3. Fox, Warner movies won’t appear in Redbox for 30 days after release
4. Why Blockbuster Kiosks Might Just Beat Redbox
5. Redbox Too Pricey? Try BigBox!