MoviesAtWork Frequently Asked Questions [FAQ]

MoviesAtWork allows you to borrow DVDs, Videos, CDs, Books & Video Games free of charge from your work colleagues. You earn "credits" when you lend items, and spend "credits" to borrow items. The standard duration of a loan is one week, but this can be extended. Apart from getting movies and games for free, it's also a great way to meet new people and make friends in your workplace.

The renting and lending of things like DVDs, CDs, Books, etc, is covered by UK copyright law. You can find the consolidated text of this law here.
Under this UK copyright law it is perfectly legal to lend your DVDs, CDs etc to your friends and family. This may be a surprise to you based on the warning messages that usually pop up when you play a DVD or Video. In fact "lending" is only considered as an infringement of copyright when it is done "through an establishment which is accessible to the public". What this basically means is that it is totally legal to lend to your circle of friends and family.
The question is whether MoviesAtWork represents an establishment accessible to the public. As MoviesAtWork is limited to the lending of material between work colleagues and friends, our understanding is that this website facilitates legal transactions.

A workplace is just a collection of people who can conveniently meet up to exchange their DVD's, Videos, CDs, Books and Video Games. It could be your office, your whole company or even just a department or building if your workplace is very large. It could be a hospital, university or a hall of residence within a university. It could even be the road you live in if you want to get together with your neighbours to share items. So the name "MoviestAtWork" doesn't really tell the whole story, but it was the best we could come up with at the time!

MoviesAtWork is a trading club for people who work in the same workplace. This means that the first thing you need to do is to select a workplace or you will be re-directed to the Select Workplace page until you have done so.
Luckily it's quick to find your workplace or create a new one if it hasn't been registered yet.

The How to get started checklist in the right column on most pages has a link to the select workplace page. You can also get to it from the My MoviesAtWork tab at the top of each page, then click on Select Workplace in the left hand list.

First, make sure that your workplace doesn't exist already. It may exist but with a slightly different name. Use an * to search for part of a name. e.g. instead of searching for Rover Group, type *Rover Group*, and you may find your company, i.e. MG Rover Group in this case.
If you still can't find your workplace, then create a new one. There are a couple of links on the workplace selection page which take you to the create workplace screen. Please try an enter all the fields as accurately as possible. Thank you!

You need credits to borrow items. When you register you get three credits to get going, but to earn more you need other people to borrow your items.
Why did we build MoviesAtWork like this? We did this to encourage people to list all their items so that workplaces would quickly build up a large library of DVDs, Videos, CDs, Books and Games available to borrow. We also think it adds a bit of fun to see how many credits you can build up....
There is also the ability to request a freebie loan. This is a loan where you don't need any credits to borrow the item, but the lender doesn't get any credits for lending it to you either. This is useful to borrow items from your friends perhaps.

The How to get started checklist (found in the right hand column of most pages) guides you through the steps to start using MoviesAtWork. You can't tick the boxes, but they will get ticked when you complete each of the four main steps in the list.

At MoviesAtWork we take the privacy of your information very seriously. We do not give, sell or rent the information you give us with any other companies. Some of your details are shared with other MoviesAtWork members during the borrowing cycle to enable the whole process to work smoothly. Please read our Privacy Policy for more details.

On the Sign In page click on Forgot Your Password and enter your user name. A new password will be generated and emailed to you.

On the Sign In page click on Forgot Your User Id? and enter your email address that you used when you registered. Your user id will be sent to you at this email address.

Before you can register you need to select a workplace. In fact as soon as you have selected a workplace you can start browsing for DVDs, Videos etc. However, you will need to register before you can actually ask to borrow an item.

You need to list as many of your items as possible so that you can earn MoviesAtWork credits each time someone borrows something from you. Your need these "credits" so that you can borrow items from other people.

MoviesAtWork is part of the Amazon associate scheme and we make available the whole Amazon database for searching, so you should be able to find your item. First enter the full title name and search. If this doesn't find your item, try a wildcard search using *. e.g. *Matrix* would search for any DVD containing the word Matrix.
If you really can't find your item, then click on the Create New DVD(Video etc) Title button, which appears after you have done a search. This allows you to create a new title, which is only available to you, until the MoviesAtWork administrator has checked it is OK to be added to the main database.

Once you've added your items they will be visible to other people in your workplace. Hopefully they will start asking to borrow them and you can earn credits.
The other very important thing you should do is encourage all your work colleagues to join up to MoviesAtWork. You can use the Tell Your Friends feature of the Website to encourage them to join up. This will send them an email - which can be anonymous if you choose.

Use the main DVD, Video, CD, Books and Video Games tabs at the top of the screen to start browsing. By default this shows you all the DVDs in your workplace, but you can refine this by picking a category from the left, picking a starting letter from the Alphabet, or by using the search box.

Yes. You need to be signed in, then click on the My MoviesAtWork tab at the top of the page and then select Member Directory from the left hand list. Search for the member by name or login, then select them with a tick and click on Member's Items. From here you can request a loan on one of their items.
Also, whenever you see a member login underlined you can click on their login which takes you to their profile summary, which also allows you to see their items and their feedback rating.

This depends on your workplace. We recommend that the person who is borrowing the item should go to the lender to pick it up. In a larger offices it may be more convenient to meet in the canteen or reception to collect it. It may also be possible for the lender to send it through the internal mail, but you need to decide if that is safe enough in your workplace.

When you have signed in your name will appear in the top left of the screen. If you click on this you will be taken to your account details page, where you can check your credit total.

The main way to get more credits is to list all your items and hope that people want to borrow them, earning you credits. Alternatively if you have run out of credits and you have listed a reasonable number of items, then use the contact us page to send us an email and we may be able to top your credits up.

Click on the My MoviesAtWork tab at the top of the page and then click on Items I'm Borrowing in the left hand list.

Click on the My MoviesAtWork tab at the top of the page and then click on Items I'm Borrowing in the left hand list. Select the item that you want to extend and click on Request Loan Extension. Follow the instructions on screen to ask for additional time.

NO! You never have to lend any of your items to anyone. You can reject any loan request that comes in without having to give any reasons. Of course, you do need to lend items to earn credits so you do have to accept some !

The MoviesAtWork feedback system helps with this. Every time a member borrows an item, the lender can leave feedback and comments on that person. So over time you can see which borrowers are reliable and return items on time.
Also, check that they've used a proper name in the member directory. Do a search on their name and check that they haven't got previous logins hiding any bad feedback.

This depends on your workplace. We recommend that the person who is borrowing the item should go to the lender to pick it up. In a larger offices it may be more convenient to meet in the canteen or reception to collect it. It may also be possible for the lender to send it through the internal mail, but you need to decide if that is safe enough for your workplace.

Click on the My MoviesAtWork tab at the top of the page and then click on Items I'm Lending in the left hand list.

The MoviesAtWork feedback system is intended to help lenders know if they can trust someone who they are lending to. Every time someone borrows an item, the lender can leave feedback and comments on them. So over time you can see which borrowers are reliable and return items on time.
Feedback consists of a rating (positive, neutral and negative) plus a text box for comments.

Only lenders give feedback. They are invited to give feedback once an item has been returned or as soon as the item is late back. Once feedback has been given, the borrower is given the opportunity to respond to the feedback on them.

Click on the My MoviesAtWork tab at the top of the page and then click on Member Directory in the left hand list. Search for the member, select their name and click on Member Details to see each line of feedback given to them and also a summary Feedback Rating.