A new website called LendAround is providing a way for everyone, including students, to still be entertained with free DVDs at a time when the recession is sucking cash out of most consumers’ pockets.

Tim Jackson, the founder of LendAround, said the website allows people to list their collection of DVDs and invite friends to do the same. Soon they can start an exchanging process that saves money people usually use renting movies from businesses like Netflix or Blockbuster. The website also keeps track of who has what DVD to prevent users from losing them.

Jackson said that most people are trying to save their money by borrowing DVDs from other friends. Yet the ones who are reluctant to lend out or borrow aren’t that way because they’re mean. Sometimes they don’t know what their friends have, are too embarrassed to, or are afraid that that if their friends may forget they borrowed something they liked.

“LendAround solves all these problems,” Jackson said.

The idea came to the former journalist after traveling to Africa with his charitable foundation, which gives grants to community organizations. “When I came back, I looked around at everything we have and realized ‘Wow, we have a lot of stuff.'”

And DVDs are just a few of the “stuff” Americans enjoy. Jackson calculates there are about two billion DVDs in America and of those about 80 percent are seen no more than twice a year. “Those DVDs aren’t garbage,” Jackson said. “They’re just movies we don’t want to watch again any time soon – but our friends might want to.”

What about the legality of the website? Some students are finding it hard to believe that this is not just another illegal downloading site, since many free DVDs are pirated copies.

“I didn’t think you could get a good DVD for free,” Leilani Yuen, freshman graphic design major, said.

However, Jackson said that based on US copyright laws, the mission of LendAround is perfectly legal, unlike films downloaded illegally online.

“And when you watch one of those, the quality sucks . . . this way you can see a movie that’s totally reliable,” Jackson said.

For Sacramento State students, there is some curiosity about the site.

“It sounds really interesting,” Agustina Castro, freshman business major, said. “It’ll be less money spent on DVDs at rental places.”

Viki Agredno, a Spanish literature major and also a freshman, said that LendAround is the kind of idea she had been considering starting herself.

“I thought about doing that in the dorms, because a lot of times I only see a DVD once, and I never see it again,” Agredno said.

Jackson chose to encourage people to lend their DVDs because they’re light, compact, and something that doesn’t take long to enjoy. As the company grows, they hope to get more people borrowing and lending more of their things.

“It isn’t about swapping junk, it’s about lending to people you know,” he said.

The website launched on February 2nd at www.lendaround.com.

Kyrie Eberhart can be reached at [email protected].