I think that the concept of pre-loading hard drives with marketing crap is actually a good idea. I don't agree with this implementation though.
On the other hand, the paranoid side of me doesn't like the idea that *somebody* put *something* on my new hard drive before it got to me.

Use firefox with user agent switcher (to IE8) and you can order any movie.But keep your money...for something not DRM infected.

I bought two in HMV, mainly because I wanted the memory for a Freeview digital broadcast video recorder, which works. (Flash, including ReadyBoost and video-player grades, isn't always fast enough.) Officially you can back up the video file (although you can only play it on the stick) but not the executables for the player, but I used Linux to partition-image and format one complete; didn't seem to work when I repeated it on the other, I forget why, so I left the executable on it. That's an Integral 4 GB stick with [Terminator 3] on it; the one I didn't have a problem with there is [Ghostbusters]. So blame Skynet, not the spooks.

Wheres my savings. If Seagate is doing this, they are being paid, so has the price of the drives come down since.No doubt you will also have to veiw all the previews that come with each movie.It wouldn't be the first time trogens some how materialize onto the hard drives down the road. The loses from the pirates must be staggering that the industry can pay Seagate to do this.

... but what a stupid fucking idea. Absolutely stupid.

no doubt the activation software will include acrobat reader, an update manager, gamespy arcade and countless other unwanted bloatwares.

why do half decent companies make foolish decisions like this? have they been duped by hollywood with their hollow promises and unrealistic forecasts?

Not only has Seagate soiled its reputation as a quality provider of hard drives, but now they've descended to hawking shitty movies for the MPAA (and equivalents), that aren't even free? Then they take efforts to reduce the appeal of such content even more by forcing you to watch it using Silverlight and Internet Explorer?

Another nail in the coffin.

What is Seagate thinking? They're already behind Western Digital in pretty much every aspect of the hard drive industry, and now they want to make their customers dislike their company?

This "plot" of theirs and Paramount will fail harder than the ipad! And that's a pretty big FAIL!

A) Should pack the drives full -- having warned before purchase that it is and is easily cleared -- without lingering executables, that don't seem to present here anyway.

B) Shouldn't be charging any more for viewing than they get for a DVD rental. $10 when trying to squeeze the last income from a bit of schlock is far too much.

Although I love WD Caviar Green.