Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Scene bust triggered historic drop in ‘pirate’ releases

torrentfreak.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 138 posts

Re: Scene bust triggered historic drop in ‘pirate’ releases

#121

Post by BoorishBears »

hesdeadjim wrote: post #96
SN76477 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Piracy is a service issue.

Hardly, piracy exists because people can't resist getting something for free when the consequences are non-existent. It's fundamentally a moral issue, but practitioners are dexterous at avoiding that line of thinking.

Exactly this, people complain about how many different services there are...

Most of them individually have more content than you can watch in a lifetime.

What about the concept of, picking the shows you have access to watch?

If the service barely has anything you watch, what happens if you don't get access to it?

People compare this all to cable, the problem with cable is you couldn't just pay $10 and get something. You payed $10 for a cable box, then you payed $30 for standard definition, then you added 20 dollars here and there for packages and HD, and a fee for mobile viewing.

Now you can pay $30 for one or two services and get access to more content than people were paying hundreds for!

But then the complaint becomes "yes but I can't watch literally everything"?

Re: Scene bust triggered historic drop in ‘pirate’ releases

#122

Post by [deleted] »

michaelmrose wrote: post #56
fortran77 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand how all the people here, who all want to be the next Bill Gates and make a ton of money selling software, services, or Juiceros, think it's "ok" to steal content. (The same content that they probably deny they watch because it's not hip enough.)

Stealing has a specific meaning. It is nonsensical to describe failure to follow copyright law stealing. Nobody calls exceeding the speed limit stealing velocity nor jaywalking "stealing the street". Rich people convinced other rich people that it would be a good idea to let rich people decide which bits I'm allowed to transmit to you in order to maximize the revenue of people who for the most part are in the busines…

[deleted]

Re: Scene bust triggered historic drop in ‘pirate’ releases

#123

Post by cercatrova »

hesdeadjim wrote: post #93
boomboomsubban wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This argument is all over the place. "People are so entitled that they don't even know they're helping companies by pirating their content."

My argument is far more cogent than any argument in favor of piracy. I can boil down every one one of those arguments, no matter how erudite, to "if I can get something for free, why shouldn't I".

Exactly, why shouldn't I? Therefore, I can and I will, simply because there are no real, direct consequences to doing so. This is best argument for piracy as you say, which it seems most people who pirate use.

Re: Scene bust triggered historic drop in ‘pirate’ releases

#124

Post by em-bee »

BoorishBears wrote: post #121
hesdeadjim wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hardly, piracy exists because people can't resist getting something for free when the consequences are non-existent. It's fundamentally a moral issue, but practitioners are dexterous at avoiding that line of thinking.

Exactly this, people complain about how many different services there are... Most of them individually have more content than you can watch in a lifetime. What about the concept of, picking the shows you have access to watch? If the service barely has anything you watch, what happens if you don't get access to it? People compare this all to cable, the problem with cable is you couldn't just pay $10 and get something.…

i don't want to watch everything. i watch about one hour of tv per day. maybe a movie once a week.

i have a very specific list of things i do want to see. favourite shows, certain actors, prefered genres. but what i want to see is spread over half a dozen services.

for $30 i get a lot of content that i don't want, and with every additional service i get more content that i don't want. and yet i'd have to spend more than $100 just to get 40 hours of the content that i do want.

you are effectively suggesting that i should not be picky and just watch what i am offered.

if i needed more content than i can watch in my lifetime, i could just watch youtube for free.

no thanks.

Re: Scene bust triggered historic drop in ‘pirate’ releases

#125

Post by [deleted] »

lostlogin wrote: post #49
POTUS wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's not kid ourselves, finding a torrent for a movie or looking up which service it streams on are both the same level of easy.[] The issue is you have to subscribe to all those different services, which is what most people are probably not willing to do. Now if a show or movie doesn't stream in your region or isn't otherwise easily online accessible, that's a different story. In that case it's on the industry to d…

More than once I’ve torrented a movie series because of hostile DRM. I used to play things on a Mac that was connected to a TV. DVDs wouldn’t play on an external screen. Actively preventing me from viewing the content caused me to just torrent it, then after a few occurrences I stopped buying or renting DVDs. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.macworld.com/article/311641...

[deleted]

Re: Scene bust triggered historic drop in ‘pirate’ releases

#126

Post by aaron695 »

Thrymr wrote: post #69
tehwebguy wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not blaming you as you aren't the one to set them in the first place, but the goal posts keep moving! Two decades post-Napster we finally have what everyone wanted all along: an easy, cheap way to watch almost every movie without leaving the couch / listen to almost every song from almost any device. But now it's not good enough unless it's literally every piece of content from a single origin 0_0

> Two decades post-Napster we finally have what everyone wanted all along: an easy, cheap way to watch almost every movie without leaving the couch / listen to almost every song from almost any device. That may be almost true for music, but is not remotely true for movies. Sure, recent releases are usually available on _some_ streaming service, but back catalog movies are often only available on DVD/Blue ray. The big…

> but back catalog movies are often only available on DVD/Blue ray.

Do you have examples?

Disney for instance are destroying the Disney Vault.

Re: Scene bust triggered historic drop in ‘pirate’ releases

#127

Post by lioeters »

fortran77 wrote: post #33
paulcole wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too avoid calling it piracy. Instead I call it "taking something you know you're not supposed to take." Edit: Really love these downvotes. Shows that people who engage in this act would rather have it called piracy because it's easier to brush off than having to look in the mirror and admit they're obviously doing something wrong. Sure they can mangle definitions of common words and perform incredible mental gymnas…

I don't understand how all the people here, who all want to be the next Bill Gates and make a ton of money selling software, services, or Juiceros, think it's "ok" to steal content. (The same content that they probably deny they watch because it's not hip enough.)

> WSJ: You watch physics lectures and Harlem Globetrotters [on YouTube]?

> Gates: This social-networking thing takes you to crazy places.

> WSJ: But those were stolen, correct?

> Gates: Stolen's a strong word. It's copyrighted content that the owner wasn't paid for. So yes.

Re: Scene bust triggered historic drop in ‘pirate’ releases

#128

Post by akvadrako »

POTUS wrote: post #26
GiorgioG wrote: post #19

It's much easier to pirate the content and have a single source of media than trying to figure out which pay service a show/movie is available on. 'Piracy' of tv/movies won't go away until that problem is solved.

Let's not kid ourselves, finding a torrent for a movie or looking up which service it streams on are both the same level of easy.[] The issue is you have to subscribe to all those different services, which is what most people are probably not willing to do. Now if a show or movie doesn't stream in your region or isn't otherwise easily online accessible, that's a different story. In that case it's on the industry to d…

No, it's not easier.

1) Having to signup and manage accounts on every streaming service is not easy even if you forget about the money.

2) Most services are not global.

3) Even if they are in your area, they might not be complete. Last week I tried to rent a German movie on Amazon, but realized they only provide English subtitles if you live in the US.

Re: Scene bust triggered historic drop in ‘pirate’ releases

#129

Post by mopsi »

hesdeadjim wrote: post #93
boomboomsubban wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This argument is all over the place. "People are so entitled that they don't even know they're helping companies by pirating their content."

My argument is far more cogent than any argument in favor of piracy. I can boil down every one one of those arguments, no matter how erudite, to "if I can get something for free, why shouldn't I".

> "if I can get something for free, why shouldn't I".

Convenience, pricing and social features. That's how Steam grew so big.

It takes much more effort to torrent something than to click "Add to cart" button in Steam. And even if the price is too high, one can always wait for a sale or a giveaway. Nor will a pirated copy give street cred in the form of achievements, "games owned" and "hours played".

The success of Steam, Netflix and Spotify has shown that there's plenty of money in the world, but you have to earn it by providing the best value.

Re: Scene bust triggered historic drop in ‘pirate’ releases

#130

Post by BoorishBears »

em-bee wrote: post #124
BoorishBears wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly this, people complain about how many different services there are... Most of them individually have more content than you can watch in a lifetime. What about the concept of, picking the shows you have access to watch? If the service barely has anything you watch, what happens if you don't get access to it? People compare this all to cable, the problem with cable is you couldn't just pay $10 and get something.…

i don't want to watch everything. i watch about one hour of tv per day. maybe a movie once a week. i have a very specific list of things i do want to see. favourite shows, certain actors, prefered genres. but what i want to see is spread over half a dozen services. for $30 i get a lot of content that i don't want, and with every additional service i get more content that i don't want. and yet i'd have to spend more t…

"Everything" doesn't refer to every show in existence...

You want a 5 course dinner with items from 5 restaurants.

You don't want to eat everything on each restaurant's menu... but you want to eat "everything", * you want a plate of everyone's content*

-

I'm saying you're allowed to want that, but if you can't afford it don't blame the restaurants for not huddling under one roof and making this imaginary buffet with "everything" under one roof.

We had that setup and it sucked worse than this, this new paradigm works better for people who understand the concept of... not getting everything you want?

It's like people don't get the concept of not getting to watch something because you can't afford it or something.

You're free to pirate it, really it's no skin off my back. I'm not even judging you (unless you try and give it some lame validation other than "I didn't want to pay for it" or in some cases "It's not available to pay for")

But then don't pretend it's the studios fault! It's literally easier (and cheaper, and more flexible) than ever to pay for access to their shows.

-

A little over 10 years ago a $200 cable bill wasn't unheard of after regional fees, per set top box fees, HD channel fees, special packages for movies.. and it wasn't until last year these fees even had to be disclosed up front, so after a sketchy sales call you'd wait a few weeks for it to all get set up, then get your first bill and start a developing a new skill: negotiating your cable bill. And good luck canceling it if you needs changed

-

There's this strange sense of entitlement people have that lets them overlook how much better the current situation is because they just need be able to watch everything they have a whim to watch.

I mean your response of "you want me to just watch what I'm offered?!?!" is so funny to me.

I mean yes? If by "offered" you mean what you paid for then yes lol. Sometimes I want to watch a show but it's not on a service I have and I don't fond any value in that service so I just... find another show to watch!

Is that really so mindblowing?

I don't see it as oppression, I don't see it as something so fundamentally unfair, I think "good thing there's these cheap services I have that have so much content I don't think I'll ever not find another show".

Now people who couldn't afford cable packages can get more content than they did before for less, on more flexible payment terms, with more flexible access, it really is a good thing if you can get over the fact sometimes you just might have to give up some gratification...

Post reply on HN