Way to piss off a legion of movielovers

The Weinsteins made a deal with Blockbuster Friday. A bad deal. Bad for us, anyway. Starting Jan. 1, all Weinstein Co. films will be rentable only via Blockbuster stores and their mail-rental service. The great appeal of Netflix -- which I assume is infinitely more popular than Blockbuster's equivalent -- is that you can get any movie. Not anymore. Not until 2010, at least. From the press release:

In exchange for exclusivity, Blockbuster will pay TWC a minimum guarantee, determined by box office performance, for each theatrical picture, and based on the acquisition or production costs for each DTV title. ... Blockbuster plans to showcase the TWC movies in special sections in its stores and online. It will also offer customers the TWC movies under its in-store guaranteed availability program, which guarantees customers that select movies will be in-stock or they get a “rain-check” free rental coupon for that movie. Blockbuster also plans to share general trending information with TWC, such as the types of movies and actors the Blockbuster consumer would like to see more of, which could provide valuable insights for future film projects.

This is horrifying and annoying. It's like the movie rental industry has gone fascist. Doesn't this tread on anti-trust laws? If not, it should. I'm certainly not starting a Blockbuster membership in addition to Netflix. So I guess it's Splitsville for me and the mishpuka Weinsteins, even though they are distributing the year's best film thusfar.