[Lowell Goudge]

I don't doubt there is a policy available to the customer and as maxfield_photo says, processing your film is acceptance of that policy. The bigger question is how conspicuously is this policy made known to the customer? ...tiny print buried within the other fine print disclaimers on the envelope you hand back to the clerk with your roll of film? ...a verbal notice to each customer that bothers to ask? ...or a large print sign on envelope dispenser?

A hungry attorney might be willing to launch a pro-bono class action lawsuit if she/he can find a number of people with the same complaint against the same vendor. However, after attorney fees and expenses, the payout to members of the class might amount to a few pennies.

There are a number of members in Pentax Forum who only use the prints like proof copies before loading the returned negative into their own film scanner to perform the digital equivalent of darkroom work. I have yet to see a comparable digital scan from a kiosk photolab.

Actually their on line policy is clear that you retain copywrite of the photos, there is not at the CVS website any policy available on film processing. But the fact is, they cannot destroy the original without your permission, maybe the real lever here is to give them an option, either high resolution digital files, or the film, but either way they cannot remove your right to get additional prints form your original. You do not transfer ownership. It is that simple.

[Robot camera]

The copyright issue is not relevant here, unless the company make copies of the pictures for their own use, which is unlikely. The negatives belong to your sister, and in not returning them the company is gulty of theft. Just writing somwhere that they will take someone's property and not return it doesn't stop it being theft, in fact it's an admission of guilt. I had a quick look on their website and I didn't find anything about retaining negs.

Remember that CDs do not last forever. Colour negatives last much longer and if there is a problem, at least you can get something out of it. When a CD goes bad that's pretty much your lot.

[photolady95]

We can close this topic. I tried and tried to get some answers and nothing came of it, so I'm not going to worry about her negatives anymore and mine will be developed at another place where I know they'll send them back to me, and my b/w will be developed at home.

[SoftwareArtifex]

It's not theft because the customer agrees to it, whether they've read the fine print and realize it or not.

Most of the mass-market places are doing this now, because they've centralized or out-sourced their processing and the store down the street only has a printer (usually not even as good-quality a printer as you might have in your home). Film is sent to the central location to be developed and scanned, and a digital copy comes to the local store for printing. It's almost come full-circle from the days when the local stores all used to send your film away before everyone got used to 1-hour photo processing, except now they don't send prints back, just digital copies. They've given up on returning negatives because the logistics are expensive (no more negatives catching a free ride with the prints), 99% of consumers never wanted the things anyway (how many people over a certain age have a box of faded, dusty, scratched-up negatives in the closet somewhere that they don't even know why they're keeping?), and the most of the few that still care about negatives in the digital age are more likely to use a dedicated photo lab instead of the local drugstore.

[Sagitta]

It's not theft because the customer agrees to it, whether they've read the fine print and realize it or not.

Most of the mass-market places are doing this now, because they've centralized or out-sourced their processing and the store down the street only has a printer (usually not even as good-quality a printer as you might have in your home). Film is sent to the central location to be developed and scanned, and a digital copy comes to the local store for printing. It's almost come full-circle from the days when the local stores all used to send your film away before everyone got used to 1-hour photo processing, except now they don't send prints back, just digital copies. They've given up on returning negatives because the logistics are expensive (no more negatives catching a free ride with the prints), 99% of consumers never wanted the things anyway (how many people over a certain age have a box of faded, dusty, scratched-up negatives in the closet somewhere that they don't even know why they're keeping?), and the most of the few that still care about negatives in the digital age are more likely to use a dedicated photo lab instead of the local drugstore.

Just because people are being robbed on a massive level doesn't make it OK. There should be a notification or tick mark on the form when sending it in to notify the end user that they won't get the negatives back at the very least.

[SoftwareArtifex]

Sure they could have communicated it better, but nobody's being robbed. Everyone gets their images, just in a different (inferior) format. They're not stealing anything, they've just chosen to change the service they provide for a worse one from our perspective.