The student media organization of California State University Northridge

Daily Sundial

The student media organization of California State University Northridge

Daily Sundial

The student media organization of California State University Northridge

Daily Sundial

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Network for sharing movies is eco-friendly

If Blockbuster has become too bothersome to deal with and Netflix is the same old chore, a new Web site can help students with their cinematic needs.

LendAround.com allows movie lovers to ‘borrow’ from the movie collections of friends or family members who are a part of the site’s community.

In the age of connectivity, LendAround has managed a niche form of sharing movies that is not only legal, but absolutely free. It’s a site created by a former journalist and his friends with the idea of reusing and passing along items such as DVDs to reserve earth’s resources. So in part, the site itself is part of the green movement.

The way LendAround works is simple. To begin, users register in the same fashion of practically every other online network, providing a name, email address and password. Upon registration, regular updates of new members and movie titles are shown. The next step involves inviting people to be a part of your network. After registering, a person could invite as many as 50 people to become members and potential lenders. Once that’s settled, a person can add their personal DVD titles to their profile, providing the movies’ titles and the barcode number on the back of the DVDs. Following this step, users now have their very own online movie sharing system.

The peer lending is novel but it does have some benefits. For example, there are no late fees because borrowers can keep the DVDs for as long as the lender allows. Unlike Netflix, the borrower can check out about 10 to more movies depending on the amount he or she is willing to lend. This process is actually better for the environment since the DVDs are being passed around as opposed to being stockpiled in a warehouse. Members can also get a glimpse of their friends or families’ movie collection without having to make trips to physically pick up the movies, which can prove very convenient.

However, there is a downside to this procedure. The whole site is based around the honor system meaning the members have to trust in each other to lend or receive movies. If a person were to break this system, there is little to no penalty given by the site’s owner and nothing gets resolved. Since the Web site encourages sharing amongst family and friends to reduce thievery and vandalism of movies, this leads to another problem. The selection of DVDs is limited to whatever movies registered friends and family members own or are willing to lend. Despite these limitations, LendAround still has a hefty amount of members.

The Web site itself is plain and simple. It takes people through the process of lending step-by-step and has a search engine for finding movie titles.

There were mixed reactions towards LendAround.com about whether or not it’s useful. Students who have heard of or frequent the site, like Daniel Kuo, a business marketing major, said that LendAround.com is ‘a good idea.’

‘I think it’s a great concept,’ Kuo said. ‘It’s a convenient service [but] personally I would rather go to a friend’s house to borrow movies.’

Health science major Kuuku Essandou said the exact opposite from his experience with the site.

‘I feel they’re providing a service that’s already been done,’ Essandou said. As a person who watches two new movies a week, Essandou didn’t think the site was useful.

‘They’re trying to create an affordable version of Netflix. I feel the site has good intentions but won’t go very far.’

Whether the premise of LendAround is gimmicky or not is debatable, but it’s still worth trying. At least it allows people to put old DVDs to good use.

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