The AU community now has access to PenguinShare, a movie sharing service created by two college students.
Daniel Turcza, a student at Yale University, and Mark Rosenberg, a student at Grinnell University, created PenguinShare, Inc., as a free service that allows college students to borrow and share DVDs from their own movie collections through an online database.
"Students will register with their school e-mail address and the Web site will create a list of DVDs posted by all users," Rosenberg said.
Once a student is signed up and has posted the titles of DVDs on the Web site that they own, they can begin to borrow movies from other users for up to four days, he said.
Students can log into the Web site and type a movie title into the search engine to receive a list of people on campus who own that movie, along with information on how to get it, Rosenberg said.
Once a user has requested a movie, he can send an e-mail through the site to the movie owner in order to set up a way to make the transaction.
Rosenberg said he believes PenguinShare is not only great for sharing movies with people on campus, but that it will also help build a sense of community and new friendships.
John Watson, associate professor in the School of Communication, said he's not sure if the site is truly legal.
"It looks like they are trying to weave [the terms and conditions of the company] in between court decisions," he said.
The language in the site's terms and conditions appears to make it legal but it depends on how users actually go about transferring and viewing movies that will make the Web site questionable, Watson said.
Wael Alexander Davis, a senior in the School of Communication, said he likes the idea of a movie sharing service but also predicts flaws in the program.
"I think it's great," he said. "I like the whole one man's trash is another person's treasure idea."
However, Davis said he also considered the potential dangers of meeting with strangers to exchange movies.
"The first thing that came to mind was some sleazy guy kidnapping someone," he said.
Rebecca Prowler, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she likes the idea of the service as well but was concerned about the safety of her belongings.
"It's a great idea because it's making use of what we have available to us without having to pay for an individual rental or a subscription service," she said. "However, I wish that there was some sort of contract to sign because I'm worried that someone will scratch, damage or steal my DVD."
People are using the service with the knowledge that it's not completely safe, Rosenberg said.
"You sign up to this free service understanding that there are some risks," he said. "You use your real e-mail address at the school you are going to so if you steal or scratch something you do it with your name attached."
There is even a user feedback system that will allow PenguinShare members to rate one another based on how well they proceeded with the transaction and handled their DVDs, Rosenberg said.
AU has not sanctioned the Web site and is merely an outside service that will make it easier for university students to get movies, Rosenberg said.
Rick Treter, director of residence life for Housing and Dining Programs, said he doesn't think AU would ever get involved in such a thing but that if people start abusing the site it will start to become a problem for the university.
"I've been [working] here for 11 years, and we have never had anything like that," he said. "If movies are stolen, I can assume there will be a lot of complaints going through [Judicial Affairs and Mediation Services]."
PenguinShare is currently up and running with several AU students already signed up. Rosenberg said as time goes on he and his business partners will assess the Web site and figure out what is working and what is not.
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