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Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

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Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#41

Post by [deleted] »

criley2 wrote: post #12
magashna wrote: post #9

> “I feel like I’m beating my head against the wall,” Tom Rutledge, the chief executive officer of Charter Communications Inc., said during an earnings call last month. “It’s just too easy to get the product without paying for it.” Boo hoo. All these companies thinking they can split all their content up and get people to pay for every single service are in for a (totally expected) surprise. I'll share my plex server…

The entitlement people feel to steal is always surprising. Especially on this board. I understand a lot of reddit is younger and irresponsible so piracy-as-the-norm is a popular trope, but among the engineers whose livelihoods depend on subscription models, we still promote service theft without so much as a hint of shame? If the economics of a service don't make sense to you, then do not subscribe. But to turn aroun…

[deleted]

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#42

Post by Cthulhu_ »

Shivetya wrote: post #14

they should simply have published numbers for how many simultaneous stream they permit and just drop the oldest connection active when a new one would exceed the limit. that is a soft way to clamp down, eventually those sharing will tire of it if they have too many friends borrowing it. now the idea of having to put in a number texted to me to continue watching is annoying enough to drop a service. not sure how much…

Well, from experience I know Netflix's accounts only have 1, 2 or 4 simultaneous streams (for family sharing), so there's already restrictions in place for amount of content consumed per paid account. I'd say that's already a pretty fair deal / limitation, and if anything it's helped family members / people who you share an account with get used to watching Netflix.

What I'm saying is that they allowed it on purpose, to make Netflix more prolific with consumers. If they crack down on it now, it probably won't suddenly cause a big increase in subscribers though.

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#43

Post by bryanlarsen »

mrkstu wrote: post #32
ghaff wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought everyone wanted content to be split up when it was bundled as a cable package.

If they all follow Disney's pricing model, that would work, but everyone wants too big a slice of the pie.

Disney has admitted that they will lose money at their current price level. Which implies strongly that they'll be increasing prices substantially in the future.

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#44

Post by [deleted] »

joshstrange wrote: post #20

> If none of those tactics work, pay-TV subscribers could someday be required to sign into their accounts using their thumbprints. This feels like an idea from some idiot corporate suit who said "Well there are fingerprint readers on phones, let's use that to lock down accounts" without understanding that your app just gets as "Yes" or a "No" when you ask the phone to scan a fingerprint. The apps themselves don't get…

[deleted]

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#46

Post by rayiner »

basch wrote: post #23
criley2 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entitlement people feel to steal is always surprising. Especially on this board. I understand a lot of reddit is younger and irresponsible so piracy-as-the-norm is a popular trope, but among the engineers whose livelihoods depend on subscription models, we still promote service theft without so much as a hint of shame? If the economics of a service don't make sense to you, then do not subscribe. But to turn aroun…

I agree with you except for the feedback loop of "make content, sell content, use money from content to buy an extension to copyright law, rinse, repeat." There is a level of assault ON the public's rights happening. They arent completely innocent content creators being robbed, having done nothing wrong. It smells less of entitlement, and more of intentional comeuppance.

Are people downloading things that they believe the copyright should have already expired on? (Under the original copyright act it was 14+14. So stuff older than 1991). Or are they downloading the latest Avengers movie?

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#47

Post by ghaff »

mrkstu wrote: post #32
ghaff wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought everyone wanted content to be split up when it was bundled as a cable package.

If they all follow Disney's pricing model, that would work, but everyone wants too big a slice of the pie.

I'm not sure I buy that. It depends on both the cable TV/satellite bundle and bundles with cable TV and other services like Internet, but $100/month is probably a pretty reasonable ballpark for the cost of a traditional channel bundle. It's pretty easy to undercut that with streaming subscriptions including something like YouTube TV.

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#48

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

tsukurimashou wrote: post #16
criley2 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entitlement people feel to steal is always surprising. Especially on this board. I understand a lot of reddit is younger and irresponsible so piracy-as-the-norm is a popular trope, but among the engineers whose livelihoods depend on subscription models, we still promote service theft without so much as a hint of shame? If the economics of a service don't make sense to you, then do not subscribe. But to turn aroun…

making a copy of something is not the same as stealing

You're right - it's not stealing, but it's not right either. Do you think there should be no intellectual rights? Are you OK with everyone copying whatever side-project revenue stream you may have without paying you?

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#49

Post by toomuchtodo »

rayiner wrote: post #37
toomuchtodo wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s easy to shirk copyright law without moral consideration when it’s become so draconian against citizens. Is denying a faceless corporation profit from finding some bits elsewhere theft? It seems the public consensus is no. This is the digital content market seeking equilibrium. Competing against free is hard, but possible! Don’t whine as a CEO that your job is hard, it’s supposed to be hard.

I feel like that’s a cop-out. I agree that draconian criminal enforcement of what is a civil tort is unwarranted. But do people really see it as a form of civil disobedience, or do they just feel entitled to stuff for free? And if it’s civil disobedience, why not do it in a principled way? Download and share but don’t watch it. I’d liken it more to the looting and vandalism in response to police brutality. More oppor…

I think comparing it to looting and vandalism is a bit hyperbole. It’s closer to copying a book at the library and taking the copy home. No one is deprived of an object or the content when duplicated, they only miss out on whatever revenue they were attempting to capture.

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#50

Post by croon »

close04 wrote: post #17
AllegedAlec wrote: post #6

> The pay-TV industry is projected to lose $6.6 billion in revenue from password sharing and piracy this year Implying that EVERYONE using it 'illegally' would keep watching if they couldn't access it for free.

Yeah, it's the same "logic" as when calculating losses to torrenting by equating the number of pirated copies with the number of lost sales. Of course they ignore the fact that the vast majority of those pirates would never consider paying even if pirating was absolutely impossible.

I'll venture a guess that a good portion of those downloaders aren't even watching everything they download to begin with.

I have bought 10s if not 100s of DVDs and Blurays that to this day are still in plastic wrap, as well as books with uncracked spines. I don't think I'm that weird, and that "tsundoku" [0] is likely a thing with downloaders as well.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsundoku

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