Originally posted by ctrout When I took the film in to get it processed and found out that they give you back a disk and dispose of the negatives
It would be interesting to do a check of the law. Technically the negatives are your property (you paid for the film after all), and disposing of them should be illegal. You ought to be able to demand them back, "store policy" notwithstanding. Most large companies do not respond well to bad publicity and lawsuits.
It would make an interesting predecent in law, especially when it came time for them to both justify the practice and to demonstrate that negatives with e.g. pics of people's children on them were not just getting tossed out to potentially end up in the wrong hands.