Streamnation Wants to be Your Online Video Lending Library
There are no shortage of ways for people to “share” their media on the Internet. But a new startup called Streamnation is looking to offer a one-stop-shop for a relatively low monthly price in order to solve the headaches associated with multiple devices and crazy licensing. Streamnation has plans ranging from $4 a month to $19 a month, all with pretty large file capacities.
A post on AllThingsD offers up details of the site’s origins: the CEO, Jonathan Benassaya, has been in the media-sharing business for a while now, having worked at a French music streaming service called Deezer, and noting that Streamnation was once called Plizy, formerly a “video discovery engine” that had managed to raise $5.3 million in funding, and has since raised another $1.2 after changing the name and function of the company.
So in short, what does Streamnation do? Well, for a monthly or yearly fee (paying for a year up front gets subscribers a small discount), you can upload your media to the company’s servers and then stream that media from any device, regardless of platform. That includes mobile devices, and the ability to do so offline. While that’s not too huge a deal on its own, Streamnation also plans on letting you let your friends in as well. If your pals sign up for accounts, you can give them “lending” access, essentially letting you share whatever movies or TV shows you’ve uploaded willy-nilly.
The ATD post speculates that Streamnation will likely face some challenges in court from the big media companies, despite operating under the “private performance” section of copyright law that allowed East Coast television provider Cablevision to maintain its “virtual DVR.” And I don’t disagree: chances are good that if Streamnation catches on, it’ll be hard to escape a challenge in court, even if it’s legally in the right. I wouldn’t be surprised if the company simply greeted each legal challenge with a deal to share a piece of the pie, even if they don’t keep track of what users upload.
I’m intrigued, though not ready to drop more money on media sharing abilities. Netflix is plenty for me at the moment, but I’ve got my eye on it. Your thoughts?