I subscribe to the "3 at a time" Netflix membership. You can rent 3 DVD at any time. When you return the DVDs, Netflix is supposed to send you more. My plan allows me to rent as many DVDs per month as I want. The only catch is supposed to be that I can have at most 3 out at any time.So one would think that I should watch the DVDs as soon as possible and return them. That way I will get more DVDs per month. Obviously this will cost Netflix more even though I pay the same fixed cost per month. In response it seems that Netflix artificially delays shipment of my DVDs when I watch and return them too fast. Other Netflix subscribers have noticed this phenomenon as well. It is called throttling.
What is a hacker to do? Well I want to try and game the throttling system. I want to convince Netflix that I am not returning the DVDs too soon. My first idea is to stagger the return of my DVDs. I will try sending at most 1 DVD back per day. Previously I would send all 3 on one day, and my replacement DVDs would be delayed. Let's see how this works. I wish I could look at the code that implements the throttling on the Netflix side. Then I could see if there was anything I could do to get more DVDs. I could always vote with my feet and switch to Blockbuster. That option is still in my mind. I will keep you posted on my anti-throttling results.
