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New 'Screen Pass' Feature in Movies Anywhere Will Let You Lend Digital Movies to Your Friends

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Popular digital film collection platform Movies Anywhere today announced that it will begin letting users lend their digital movies to friends, with a new feature called "Screen Pass" (via The Verge).

movies-anywhere-screen-pass.jpg

Screen Pass will let you share up to three films each month, and your friend will have seven days to accept the offer, after which they will gain access to the film for 14 days. Once started, recipients will have three days to finish watching the film.

Both users will need a Movies Anywhere account, but there won't be a limit on how many times a film can be shared or how many people you share it with in a month. This means that you can share the same movie to two different people, for example, while still being able to watch it in your own library.

Not every movie will support Screen Pass, but Movies Anywhere said that over 6,000 titles will be eligible when the feature kicks off in beta later today. Eligible movies will be determined by studios, so it's likely that newer releases or very popular films won't see Screen Pass support.

Movies Anywhere is a digital locker service that houses all of your movies from platforms like iTunes, Amazon Video, Vudu, Google Play, Microsoft Movies & TV, Fandango Now, and more. When synced with Movies Anywhere, all of these accounts feed into the central service and let you see your entire digital collection in one place.

The closed beta will start today at 1 p.m. PT, and an open beta is planned for May. Afterwards, a wide launch of Screen Pass is slated for later in the year.

Article Link: New 'Screen Pass' Feature in Movies Anywhere Will Let You Lend Digital Movies to Your Friends
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/03/17/screen-pass-movies-anywhere/
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This is pretty sweet actually, though you used to be able to share your whole library using UltraViolet a few years ago with something like 3-5 people. So sort of a step back, but this seems like a pretty reasonable middle ground.

Now if only TV shows had a similar digital locker.
 
reallynotnick said:
This is pretty sweet actually, though you used to be able to share your whole library using UltraViolet a few years ago with something like 3-5 people. So sort of a step back, but this seems like a pretty reasonable middle ground.

Now if only TV shows had a similar digital locker.
Click to expand...

TV shows, and the remaining studios...
 
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First same day movie releases at home, and now this? The movie gods are smiling upon us today!
 
I'd argue that the most urgent problem with Movies Anywhere is that it's still missing support from several movie studios. As a result, you can purchase 100 films on Vudu or Amazon, then find that only 60 of them are available on Apple TV.

Let's get the other studios on board, please.
 
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Back in the 80’s, studios feared the humble cassette tape. You could record albums with great (not perfect) clarity and make “mix tapes” for your car, office or home.
I got exposed to a vast array of music I would have never have heard of, any other way. I think this is why there are so few musical artists today, compared to the 70-90’s.
If you like the movie - or TV series - you will buy it. If not, you won’t. The studios may lose a sale that they would never have made anyway - or gain a sale from a new fan.

file sharing is not privacy. Most file sharing folk fall into 3 categories

1). Curious. Like folks who pulled down Photoshop, saw how complex it was and said “oh, not for me” and never tried it again

2). Were never interested enough to see the movie in the theater, but looked. Some said “glad I saved money” so studio lost a sale they never had; others said that’s good stuff - then bought the higher resolution dvd later on

3). Super fans. Saw Iron Man several times at the theater, loved it. Yanked down the poor quality flick to watch until it came out on DVD, then bought that

this will likely cause future sales
 
FaustsHausUK said:
Movies Anywhere links to collections across iTunes, Google Play, Amazon Prime, Fandango Now and many others. This is better than an Apple-only play.
Click to expand...

MoviesAnywhere doing this proves that studios are willing to allow this. No reason it can't be offered both by Movies Anywhere and by Apple. In either case, this should become the standard for digital stores and purchases.

Personally, I'd like to see Apple do it as well, so I can lend my content to friends/family who already use Apple services and may not want to setup another account. And since Apple's stores also offer TV Shows, Books, and Music, they're in a great position to set a standard for this type of content sharing.
 
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julesme said:
I'd argue that the most urgent problem with Movies Anywhere is that it's still missing support from several movie studios. As a result, you can purchase 100 films on Vudu or Amazon, then find that only 60 of them are available on Apple TV.

Let's get the other studios on board, please.
Click to expand...

Definitely agree though in our case, I'd say we're running closer to 80-85% of movies porting over. Funny enough, just in the last couple of days, I noticed a couple of movies we purchases months ago, are now in iTunes (they were always in the Vudu app).
 
This looks good, but aren't Movies Anywhere just trapping themselves again by copyright holders?

I guess they would expire after 14 days, and not every movie can be shared, but sharing is also the enemy of disaster with right holders..

Would they like this? I think i'm beginning to understand why this is a closed beta.
 
Just hints at the real issue...so you spend your life acquiring digital media. When you die ...? It's tied to YOU. Your account, yes? So can you leave the media to your kid? A spouse? Do they need to keep your email and account active? I don't believe there are any universal rules or solutions here. But a streaming service, monthly payment may be the answer vs. 'buying' anything. Weird to think about.
 
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