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Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent

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Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent

#101

Post by ashconnor »

RealGeek wrote: post #96
billpg wrote: post #74

As someone with money who enjoys a lot of American TV, I'm not really interested in excuses why these services are not available worldwide. Quit making excuses and make it happen. The torrenters don't seem to have any trouble building a global distribution network, and they are hiding from the law while simultaneously kicking your butt. If you don't want to make it happen, quit whining about losing money. I have mone…

The delay in geographical releases is because studios license the copyrights to a regional studio or a distribution company. Unfortunately, this arrangements prohibits them to use any alternate distribution channels to release the content on their own. Also, the regional company is unlikely to have any arrangements with services like Netflix and Hulu. In the end its all about the money and bureaucracy.

Surely they realise they are losing money?

Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent

#102

Post by bad_user »

sp332 wrote: post #92
bad_user wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

b) they still got all the money for the cars they produced, there is not a single missing It doesn't work like that - in the event of a magical button that can replicate a car, all the cars they'll be able to produce and sell is exactly 1. In such an event the car maker won't be able to recuperate its sunk costs, and the writing would be clearly on the wall, so such a magical car will never be produced, unless there'…

It doesn't work like that - in the event of a magical button that can replicate a car, all the cars they'll be able to produce and sell is exactly 1. Every movie sold on Blu-Ray, ever, is available via torrent. And yet they still sell.

Your comment doesn't follow from mine because I touched on both (a) quality and (b) legislature that makes distribution or possession of copies illegal.

This is an economy of scarcity -- people tend to buy the cheapest product that fulfills their needs. Those needs many-times include not getting sued to oblivion and risk huge penalties.

Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent

#103

Post by vdm »

Nate75Sanders wrote: post #3

I try to explain this type of thing to people who are ardently anti-piracy: You can never, ever, expect people to miss out on the culture that's happening during their lives. If money, or geography, or whatever is preventing it, they'll still do the best they can to make sure they don't miss anything.

This is so true, and I reckon people in the US have no idea how crippled online access to entertainment is abroad. Moreover, culture is going global, which should be an opportunity, but in reality exacerbates the problem.

Recently, while in Germany, I found Youtube content to be highly restricted. I could not view music videos that I can view in Ireland, and I find this arbitrary restriction oppressive. I would imagine that others do too, and will just avail of whatever other means are available to them. Torrents and such are just filling a vacuum.

In Ireland none of the mainstream music streaming services (Spotify, Rhapsody) are available. Grooveshark is.

Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent

#104

Post by cabalamat »

wccrawford wrote: post #81
DarkShikari wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Content that has been permitted by the owner is released in your country, when the owner permits. There is no legal means for someone to restrict where and when I can and cannot choose to view or use content I own, as much as they would love to think so. And they indeed love to think so: I've actually seen companies claim that it is illegal to use the software they sell outside of the country they sell it in . If a m…

And so you can import it, assuming your country's laws permit. But if you want the content owner to sell it to you directly, you'll have to wait for them want to do so. The reasons for them not wanting to do so could include laws, expenses, or other craziness that you aren't aware of. Believe it or not, we experience the same crap here in the US in regards to foreign stuff. BBC shows are really popular here, but are…

> But if you want the content owner to sell it to you directly, you'll have to wait for them want to do so.

.. or use BitTorrent!

If the content owner refuses to sell the content to someone, then that person isn't depriving them of any income by pirating it. If an activity harms no-one, then it can't be immoral to do it. If the law says otherwise, it's a bad law.

Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent

#105

Post by Tyrannosaurs »

archivator wrote: post #89
AlexC04 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the TV license at now? 180 pounds or ~275 US? If it came with access to iPlayer, 4oD & iTVoD I'd probably be willing to pay for a UK TV license. (I'm in Canada)

That's an interesting model - pay the full price for a TV license and only use the web services. There would be technical difficulties, of course (guaranteeing a decent connection to the BBC servers, possibly adding international data centres) but it certainly provokes thought. On the other hand, how exactly will the government justify collecting tax from non-citizens (even worse, non-residents!)?

> On the other hand, how exactly will the government justify > collecting tax from non-citizens (even worse, non- > residents!)?

How do the US justify taxes when I (in the UK) buy something from Threadless which is based in the US? Or my subscription to Backblaze? Or the sales tax when I visit the US (where I'm neither a citizen nor resident)?

It's pretty much a non-issue.

Technically though it probably wouldn't be a tax. A tax is collected by the state and this would almost certainly go through a limited company which while ultimately owned by the state is legally different.

Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent

#106

Post by tomjen3 »

Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #100
tomjen3 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly if there is no chance that I ever buy something (say because it is not available for sale) what does it matter if I download it? I can see the argument for torrent over buy, but not really torrent over nothing.

I suspect the argument might run that by not doing something about it you encourage others who might have paid to pirate your product ("if he's not paying why should I?"). But this (if it happens at all) will frequently be offset by those who pirate now but might become legitimate clients in the future. People in this category might be students (no cash at the moment but will have in the future) or those pirating jus…

It doesn't extend from trademarks, you can't loose copyright or patents for not enforcing them.

Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent

#107

Post by rb2k_ »

I recently found an interesting DNS based service that will allow you to access some of them:

http://blog.marc-seeger.de/2011/04/07/hulu-and-iplayer-outsi...

The advantage over a VPN-based solution is that there is no need to route all of your traffic over the VPN. Most of the time they only redirect the geo-location stuff and once you receive the videostream URL, that transfer will go over your 'regular' connection. It also allows you to just put their DNS servers into your router and your Apple TV / Wii / iPad ... will automatically use the service.

Security wise, they might be able to redirect any domain resolution to their servers, but they still won't be able to fake the SSL certificates. As long as you're using IMAPS/HTTPS/*S you should be fine I guess.

Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent

#108

Post by RealGeek »

ashconnor wrote: post #101
RealGeek wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The delay in geographical releases is because studios license the copyrights to a regional studio or a distribution company. Unfortunately, this arrangements prohibits them to use any alternate distribution channels to release the content on their own. Also, the regional company is unlikely to have any arrangements with services like Netflix and Hulu. In the end its all about the money and bureaucracy.

Surely they realise they are losing money?

I am sure they do. But they have to rely on such distribution deals to make most revenue. They won't be able to distribute via main stream mediums like movie theaters and TV channels on their own because of extensive offshore logistics.

Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent

#109

Post by stuartjmoore »

ashconnor wrote: post #101
RealGeek wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The delay in geographical releases is because studios license the copyrights to a regional studio or a distribution company. Unfortunately, this arrangements prohibits them to use any alternate distribution channels to release the content on their own. Also, the regional company is unlikely to have any arrangements with services like Netflix and Hulu. In the end its all about the money and bureaucracy.

Surely they realise they are losing money?

They get money from ads, and what ad company will pay for users outside of their market? Ad-free is wasted bandwidth.

Re: Why I get my entertainment via BitTorrent

#110

Post by sp332 »

bad_user wrote: post #102
sp332 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't work like that - in the event of a magical button that can replicate a car, all the cars they'll be able to produce and sell is exactly 1. Every movie sold on Blu-Ray, ever, is available via torrent. And yet they still sell.

Your comment doesn't follow from mine because I touched on both (a) quality and (b) legislature that makes distribution or possession of copies illegal. This is an economy of scarcity -- people tend to buy the cheapest product that fulfills their needs. Those needs many-times include not getting sued to oblivion and risk huge penalties.

I was going to reply with all the legal stuff on TPB, but I wanted to point out that even the biggest-budget and most popular content can survive even if it's available for free. There are a lot of producers who distribute primarily on P2P and it doesn't seem to be any harder for them to make money. I think http://vodo.net/ is the biggest example that comes to mind right now, and individual artists like http://www.pronobozo.com/ are doing OK on their own as well.
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