US Lawyers DB

SAN FRANCISCO ? Online DVD trading service Peerflix Inc. may expand beyond movies, thanks in part to a new patent that could force other e-commerce companies to change the way they do business. The 2-year-old startup is similar to file-trading sites such as Kazaa, the target of numerous copyright lawsuits. But Peerflix trades physical DVDs, not digital files; the business model does not include content copying, so the service is legal. Roughly 225,000 registered users print shipping labels through the Peerflix Web site and mail each other used DVDs. Members receive "peerbux" equal to the value of the DVD they ship, and they can buy titles from a list of movies they compile. Peerflix charges a 99-cent commission on each trade. On Monday, Peerflix announced it will move away from its peerbux-centered model and instead track the value of DVD trades in real dollars....