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The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

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Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#231

Post by tomp »

jedberg wrote: post #120
distances wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a major issue with streaming services. Netflix usually doesn't offer even English subtitles to an English-speaking movie if you're in a non-English speaking country! At least with DVDs you could rip it and add subtitles yourself if needed.

> Netflix usually doesn't offer even English subtitles to an English-speaking movie if you're in a non-English speaking country! Sadly, this has nothing to do with streaming and everything to do with rightsholders (aka "Hollywood"). The rights on the subtitles are held by the company that makes them, are then sold to the company that distributes the movie, which are then resold to regional distributors, separately fr…

I don't see how English subtitles for an English movie can even be copyrighted... they're definitely not a work of art, not transformative, just a plain old transcript.

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#232

Post by leetcrew »

RankingMember wrote: post #119
allthenews wrote: post #59

Site is down, but I noticed recently that the bit torrent client is looking more and more like 90s malware every time I download it. It has been streaming commercials for a while now. Ive decided to look for an alternative client next time I need to install one

I suspect you're referring to μTorrent, which has been descending into awful spam-infested garbage for a long time now. As another user suggested, give qbittorrent a go.

qbittorrent is the best out there for windows imo. my only complaint is that it seems to have no dpi awareness whatsoever.

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#233

Post by senorjazz »

arximboldi wrote: post #221
masklinn wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> PS: Mostly thanks to Bandcamp.com music torrenting is completely dead for me. Seconded. My music search these days is Find interesting band + | v not sure I can Is on bandcamp? +-no-> be arsed to even + check torrents | yes | v buy entire discography on bandcamp

Torrents don't really work for music. Soulseek is your friend there, super old-school but great community and it has basically everything. I also buy almost everything I find on Bandcamp. Excepting those über-hipster techno artists with 100-copies vinyl-only releases (but those you can usually still find rips on Soulseek.)

+1 for soulseek. I still boot it up quite a bit, no where near what I used to, but still quite regularly.

Although for the more obscure things, youtube-dl is #1 where soulseek fails

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#234

Post by digi_owl »

freehunter wrote: post #219
Semaphor wrote: post #78

The reason why for me, someone with a netflix and amazon prime account in Germany, bittorrent is neither dead nor declining (for movies and TV shows): a) Being on time. If you want to take part in the online discussion about tv shows, you have to watch them on time. For a ton of shows I can't even buy episodes on the day they come out. Torrenting is still the far superior choice. b) Languages. Yes netflix, I know tha…

>b) Languages. It is so damn hard to find media in other languages, and there is no reason for it. The US and Germany are both very technologically advanced countries producing a great amount of media in their own majority languages, but as a German speaker in the US, Harry Potter is about the only German language novel I can reliably find. I like Harry Potter, sure, but I like other books too. I shouldn't have to fl…

Reminds me of the story that when the last book of the series was released in English, a German fan group sat down an translated a portion each. They finished the task in something like 48 hours. And they did it because supposedly the official German translation could only be started after the English release for fear of leaks.

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#235

Post by ghaff »

dijit wrote: post #177
masklinn wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> PS: Mostly thanks to Bandcamp.com music torrenting is completely dead for me. Seconded. My music search these days is Find interesting band + | v not sure I can Is on bandcamp? +-no-> be arsed to even + check torrents | yes | v buy entire discography on bandcamp

I was this way with iTunes for a long time. iTunes successfully turned me off pirating music, why would I do it when I can pay 99p for a song and have all the metadata correct, including album art, perfectly synced to all my devices in perpetuity? And no DRM means I can play them on my non-apple/iTunes devices and media players.. great! Well, unfortunately I want to own my music, so I don't like to use streaming serv…

Not sure I understand why, if you want to own your music, you don't just ignore the premium streaming services and continue to buy what you want. I admittedly have a big library and am generally less interested in a lot of newer music but I currently just have the "free" streaming Amazon Prime service and just buy anything in particular I want.

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#236

Post by senorjazz »

Obi_Juan_Kenobi wrote: post #109
Semaphor wrote: post #78

The reason why for me, someone with a netflix and amazon prime account in Germany, bittorrent is neither dead nor declining (for movies and TV shows): a) Being on time. If you want to take part in the online discussion about tv shows, you have to watch them on time. For a ton of shows I can't even buy episodes on the day they come out. Torrenting is still the far superior choice. b) Languages. Yes netflix, I know tha…

Is German Netflix that bad? In the USA, I can choose the audio and subtitle language pretty easily; it's even supported on their Plex app and so forth. Example: I just watched "Dark" and it defaulted to English dub, but it just took a second to switch it to German with English subtitles.

Am living in a Spanish speaking Latin American country, the netflix options here are 1/10 of the options in the US (spanish language programs).

Plus the connection is not very good for streaming, so torretning is the route to go. We tried cable, but the number of adverts and the length was insane (I'm originally from the UK, I seem to recall being annoyed at the sheer quantity of ads when have visited the US as well)

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#237

Post by akoncius »

mulmen wrote: post #217
phil248 wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Torrenting for me has always been about convenience, not money. I recently wanted to watch a new show called A.P. Bio. It's free on NBC's website. But after struggling through one episode with lags and ads with no volume control, I gave up and just torrented the show. Until they master such exotic technologies as "streaming video" and "volume control" they're going to keep driving people to torrenting. Netflix figure…

I'd like to know the ratio of "legitimate" viewers to pirates for Netflix and major network shows. Does the quality and convenience of the Netflix player reduce piracy?

small anecdote: when spotify vecame available in my region (Lithuania), I instantly became paid subscriber because it was really convenient. And my colleagues did the same - it’s just simpler to use Spotify with its was library instead of wasting time in torrent sites looking for some new music. Same applies for me with netflix.

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#238

Post by digi_owl »

disappearance wrote: post #131
remir wrote: post #110

P2P forced the industry to adapt and now we have good streaming services, but the content selection is nowhere as good as what you can find on torrent sites. What the Popcorn Time devs did was simply amazing. It had a Netflix-like interface plus a huge selection of content that you could watch right away. The industry should learn from these guys. Just make your content available, easy to obtain and people will pay f…

> Just make your content available Agree. Regional licensing restrictions (music & video) and timed availability (video) seem to be lingering issues for legal streaming services and until they're solved/ forgotten the Popcorn Times will always have a place.

It is lawyers all the way down, sadly. And old old old contracts...

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#239

Post by digi_owl »

softawre wrote: post #197
remir wrote: post #110

P2P forced the industry to adapt and now we have good streaming services, but the content selection is nowhere as good as what you can find on torrent sites. What the Popcorn Time devs did was simply amazing. It had a Netflix-like interface plus a huge selection of content that you could watch right away. The industry should learn from these guys. Just make your content available, easy to obtain and people will pay f…

Netflix is trying and they are a huge business. If it was easy they would have been disrupted by now.

They had things going for a time, but then they switched to their own branded content (supposedly because the big guys wanted more of the pie and so set up their own services).

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#240

Post by scentoni »

pmarreck wrote: post #213
lghh wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless if it's "ethical/fair" or not (and it's really concerning that you're conflating the two words) it's still illegal and you can get hit pretty hard for it. Saying it's ethical doesn't get you out of court or a hefty fine.

Give me an example of something that is ethical but unfair, or fair but unethical

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgment_of_Solomon is unethical but could be considered fair (with respect to the putative mothers, if not the baby).
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