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MovieSwap Will Allow Subscribers to Watch Unlimited Movies & TV Shows [Kickstarter]

MovieSwap

MovieSwap’s Service Will allow Unlimited Movie and TV Show Viewing. The Kickstarter campaign for MovieSwap will bring to market an interesting service if successful. A user basically sends in their old DVDs to MovieSwap. In exchange, the user will be able to swap those films for the ability to watch other films in the MovieSwab library. The MovieSwap subscription service is supplied by the crowd, movie fans from all over the world, and powered by the cloud.

MovieSwap has currently raised $63,906 and has 2,954 backers on Kickstarter.

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The Service

The MovieSwap service will be fully legal because swapping or lending property that you have paid for to someone else is fully within your rights. MovieSwap is giving its users that ability on a larger scale.

Through MovieSwap, users can send in and stream movies and TV shows on their TV, PC, MAC, tablet, or smart phone. Users who want a digital backup of their DVD library can simply send in that library to MovieSwap. MovieSwap will digitize that library for you, give you free access to it, and give you the ability to swap one or more of your titles for a title in someone else’s library.

When you create your MovieSwap account, a first DVD will be provided for you: it allows you to swap in the huge MovieSwap library. You can also send us your own DVDs. The more you send the more benefits you get. For example if you subscribe to the DVD GIVER Pack On Kickstarter and send us 50 DVDs or more, you will receive a free HDMI Slapstick. … Every DVD you send us will be locked at first and therefore won’t be available to other users. Only if you want to, you can unlock them, free them: you will then allow the MovieSwap library to grow and you’ll get some exclusive benefits like the acquisition of rare and new films.

That’s the logistical and technical basis of MovieSwap, which is ready to:

  • 1. collect millions of DVDs from all over the world
  • 2. register them on behalf of their owners
  • 3. put them into the cloud
  • 4. store them in warehouses
  • 5. and remotely play them on any device across their personal libraries.

Users will be able to playback MovieSwap videos using their HDMI SwapStick or the VLC Player (free to download).

The Coming Legal Battle

MovieSwap…based its approach on a fully legal basis, combining two legal concepts known as “first sale doctrine” and “fair use”.

Users can choose to either contribute to this Kickstarter campaign and receive some DVDs in their digital library, or send in their physical DVD collections in order to enjoy them or swap them with the community. This process ensures that users are always swapping one DVD for another, thus making the process legal.

Because people already PAID for them, we invented a fair way to give [your DVDs] a brilliant second life.

The legal ability to do swap sounds straight forward but I can not imagine movie and TV studios not challenging this in court. The people behind those studios are very smart. They will wait until MovieSwap is ready to launch and then sue for an injunction to stop them from beginning operation. They will wait until MovieSwap has spent the lion-share of their capital on getting their service ready for market then drop their litigious hammer. Movie Swap will then have to spend hundreds of thousand of dollars fighting the injunction.

To avoid this or to prevail in the legal battle that is sure to occur, MovieSwap needs to be able to show case-by-case, swap-by-swap, one user giving permission for a specific user to watch their copy of a specific movie or TV show with Movie Swap only facilitating that communication and that lending. If they can do that, have it all computerized, available to view at any time, available on a spreadsheet, MovieSwap will be able to prevail. And so will fans of films and TV shows.

Behind the Scenes

MovieSwap was created by founders Cyril Barthet, Julien Navas, Chris Navas, and David Honnorat and is based in France. The MovieSwap team has worked on the business model for over two years and they seem to have all of their bases covered.

Your Thoughts

Will you be contributing to their MovieSwap’s kickstarter campaign? Will you be using the service when its online?

Leave your thoughts on MovieSwap and its business model below in the comments section and please consider subscribing to us by Email, “following” us on Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, or “liking” us on Facebook for quick updates.

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Rollo Tomasi

Rollo Tomasi is a Connecticut-based film critic, TV show critic, news, and editorial writer. He will have a MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in 2025. Rollo has written over 700 film, TV show, short film, Blu-ray, and 4K-Ultra reviews. His reviews are published in IMDb's External Reviews and in Google News. Previously you could find his work at Empire Movies, Blogcritics, and AltFilmGuide. Now you can find his work at FilmBook.
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