Peerflix Launches P2P DVD Sharing Service

Dotnaught writes "Peerflix has offically launched, ending a 12 month beta test. The company manages the peer-to-peer trading of physical DVDs (with CDs and videogames coming soon) by mail. As the article in InformationWeek suggests, while such trades may be legal under the first-sale doctrine of U.S. Copyright Act, content owners won't be pleased -- discs are easy to copy and there's ample precedent to suggest users will dupe discs before trading them."

Comments

Re:as opposed to the NetFlix project?

[ghstomahawks]

exactly ... but it happens anyway. The real genius is a company finding a way to make money off of illegal scheming of peoples. Rock on!

Fighting The Waves

[JordanL]

How would any media corporation of any kind fight something like this on any principal but that they think all their users are lying, cheating bastards?

And even then... would companied like Paramount have to sue themselves for owning something like Blockbuster?

Re:Asks about piracy

[Neil Blender]

How would you tell if someone pirated it?

I usually see a little box drawn on the disc with a sharpie. Next to the box, the word "copied" is written. If there is a check in the little box, well, you know it's been pirated.

My own Peerflix experience...

[Rageon]

I've been using Peerflix for a couple months and have been relatively satisfied with it. It's proven to be a good way to get rid of all those old DVDs that would have either gathered dust for years or fetched me 3 bucks at a pawn shop. I've gotten plenty of movies as gifts or free throw-ins with things that I never wanted in the first place, or others that I bought but later realized I never watched. Frankly, the $1 it costs to upgrade a crappy movie to something else is well worth it.

I've only had 1 problem so far. I got a copy of Night of the Living Dead that was scrathed to hell. When it arrived, it played, so I confirmed it. Of course, when I played it, I found that a couple minutes would not play. But because I had let a week or so pass between receipt and claim, I was out of luck. I wrote about 5 emails to their CS about this, and got 1 response, which really had nothing to do with my complaint. But otherwise nearly all the movies I've gotten are in very good condition.

The bad part is that a lot of movies are technically "available", but might only be in the hands of 1 or 2 other users, neither of which actually intends to share their copy, but has it listed for one reason or another. So it sometimes takes a few weeks (or more) to get some movies. Also, maybe half the movies I listed have been requested by others. But then again, I didn't expect the demand to be extremely high for that copy of The Mask someone gave me. Generally, good movies get requested fairly quickly.

If you have a specific movie in mind that you want right away, Peerflix isn't the best solution. But if you have a list of 20 or so movies you would like to get eventually, it's a nice service.

My only other complaint would be that when your "Peerbux" goes to zero, it automatically charges another $5 worth to you, rather than waiting until you actually want to buy something. This is obviously a nice way for the company to get a few bucks extra from everyone in the end, but it strikes me as shadey.

As far a Piracy goes, well, it's really no different than renting movies or using Netflix, so I think it's a non-issue as it pertains to Peerflix specifically.

Re:Asks about piracy

[flyingsquid]

How would you tell if someone pirated it?

Scratch marks. The pirate will leave scratch marks when they put the disk in its packaging 'cos they have a hook hand.

Plus, the notes on the back of the box differ in telltale ways from the usual fare, for example they might say stuff like "Ahar me mateys, this be a fine film, 'two hooks up' raves the critics! The whole crew will rejoice at this swashbuckler of a picture, plus an extra DVD with a treasure chest of bonus scenes! Rated ARRRRRR!"