Hacking NetFlix has news that the U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission has ruled that the U.S. Postal Service "...had unduly discriminated against GameFly" (thanks Mike Martinez via Slashdot). This comes almost exactly two years after GameFly claimed that their postage costs doubled after they were forced to use protective mailers to prevent breakage, but that Netflix and Blockbuster discs got preferential treatment preventing them from suffering the same fate. An Order on Complaint (Adobe Acrobat-format) has all the details, here's a bit:

[1004] DVDs returned by subscribers to Netflix in its prepaid letter-sized mailers are non-machinable, and are frequently damaged or cause machine jams. DVDs returned by subscribers to GameFly also are damaged from processing on automated letter processing equipment. The Postal Service separates and hand processes a substantial proportion of Netflix’s returns without imposing a non-machinable surcharge. The Postal Service is unwilling to hand process GameFly’s returns causing GameFly to incur an additional ounce charge on its mail, which the Postal Service refuses to waive.

[1005] To remedy this unreasonable preference, the Commission orders the Postal Service to establish two parallel rate categories within First-Class Mail for round- trip DVD mail. One category establishes that DVDs sent as presorted First-Class Mail letters to subscribers will not be subject to the non-machinable surcharge when returned. The other rate category provides that DVDs mailed as First-Class Mail flats to and from subscribers will not be subject to an additional ounce charge.