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Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

reuters.com

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Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#811

Post by croon »

Fezzik wrote: post #645
NikolaNovak wrote: post #612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really not. I'm a computer geek, and I'm LONG past the point where setting up safe VMs and signing up to half a dozen services like newsgroup server and directories and search engines and what nots, download software with impossible names like sabnzbd (I'm waiting up for somebody to scream how nobody uses sabnzbd anymore, it's been replaced by jidwiaj and iqerqip, which are super easy, and that just proves my po…

On a Mac TPB + a decent VPN + BiglyBT = trivially easy torrenting. I have certainly never encountered any of the hardships you describe. I have been using that same setup for… 10+ years? With BiglyBT replacing Vuze after Vuze was purchased and turned in to garbage.

You are blind to the amount of time you spend finding torrents, manage disk space, cleanups, feeding your TV-box, replacing broken/fake media, versus just opening an app and clicking play.

I say this as someone who's setup sonarr, radarr, bazaar, nzbget, usenet priorities, indexers, ombi, etc, which eliminates most maintenance and labor. Stuff can still break, quotas run out, and I want market options.

If I could pay to watch British panel shows, and everything else I want to watch from where I reside, I would do so.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#812

Post by croon »

tomc1985 wrote: post #770
grahamburger wrote: post #767

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's talking about all the stuff to set up to actually watch the stuff you pirate. Like, on a TV, from your couch, using a remote, without fussing with an HDMI cable to your laptop every time. Or setting up your kids / SO to watch on a tablet, phone, etc. Just getting the files without getting caught is only like a quarter of the battle.

Even then... I run Kodi on a Shield, which pulls data from a NAS. Copy the files to the right folder and let Kodi rescan. Still simple... the hardest part is setting up the network drive

"Honey, it's easy, just go [there] and download a torrent, then wait for it to finish, then copy it to the right folder, oh, you don't see it? you have to mount the NAS on your computer, you can't on your phone, then reopen Kodi so it scans, no I mean you have to force close it: home, home, down, enter, then open it again, wait for it to scan, it takes a couple of minutes, then the kids can watch Paw Patrol after dinner. Also, don't forget dinner."

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#813

Post by skinnymuch »

astura wrote: post #62
skinnymuch wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Names are similar because they were one company until 40 years ago Edit: comment was edited a bit. Before it mentioned the names are similar but unrelated.

Yeah I got their history confused with a completely different company for a second then realized my mistake. I haven't had my coffee yet.

Yeah. I didn’t know whether to delete my comment or not. I also had to re verify the history since I am geekily into tech and media startups, corps, but not casinos or brick and mortar.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#814

Post by ClumsyPilot »

fastball wrote: post #780
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #753

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What contract did piratebay creators violate? They never signed any contract, and neither did anyone downloading.

Presumably the ripper has some form of contract with whichever entity they sourced the content from, and piracy undoubtedly violates that contract / ToS.

None of that could result in piratebay staff going to jail, or individual people downloading recieving legal threats

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#815

Post by texaswhizzle »

edgyquant wrote: post #789
texaswhizzle wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Season 4 is bad because the book is bad. Unfortunately, the source material doesn’t get any better after this.

It does at book 8

Ah, interesting. I stopped after book 6. Can I jump straight to 8 or do I need to slog my way through 7?

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#817

Post by lostgame »

andy_ppp wrote: post #804
lostgame wrote: post #776

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the problem is that you're pitching the value too low. It's like...$1 for a DRM-free song right now, and tbh that's not unfair. Even if I could buy movies DRM-free right now for $10, older movies for $5, that'd be fair; I think. :)

I’m saying the low price would make more money for the studios because it being cheap more people would buy 10x or more of the digital item.

$5 for a movie is still cheap. :)

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#818

Post by lostgame »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #228
lostgame wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Piracy was the Easiest/Only way to get content until ~2008ish. Since then; Netflix and (...x streaming platform) made it easier/better to Pay for the content than pirate it. Fragmentation still hurts this to an extreme, and - worse - God-awful region locks. As a fan of obscure, cult and independent cinema in particular it’s a wasteland of titles strewn across 5 different services, and being Canadian, piracy is jus…

> Nothing beats the convenience of typing in what you’re looking for and actually finding it right away. That pretty much defines convenience. It’s what I expect. You can do this for most items. For example, go to apple’s TV app or play store and purchase or rent the item.

>> You can do this for most items. For example, go to apple’s TV app or play store and purchase or rent the item.

Okay, so you're telling me if I boot up my Apple TV and type in 'The Simpsons', I'm going to immediately get a list of options to watch the Simpsons?

...

No, that won't work - in fact - this was actually my first overall point - the fragmentation issue.

If I search 'The Simpsons' on TPB, I'll get multiple options of quality vs. size, every episode ever, the movie; fullscreen vs. widescreen; etc.

If I search 'The Simpsons' on Apple TV+, I get...nothing.

If I search 'The Simpsons' on Netflix, I get...nothing.

If I search 'The Simpsons' on Amazon Prime, I get...nothing.

If I search 'The Simpsons' on Paramount+, I get...nothing.

So...unless you're subscribed to this one particular streaming service (Disney+), you can't watch one of the most popular shows on television, which often airs on many a channel up here in Canada.

If we're even lucky enough to get the content at all in Canada due to region restrictions.

That's...not convenient. I'm not sure what you meant by your comment, but the fact that you can't do what your comment says was kinda my overall point.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#819

Post by NikolaNovak »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #612
caeril wrote: post #512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No it isn't. It's a workaround. Sure, but it's a trivially easy workaround. Our focus of attention on matters of regulation ought to be in those areas where working around the problem is not nearly as dead simple as a torrent client, a NAS, and a Plex server.

It's really not. I'm a computer geek, and I'm LONG past the point where setting up safe VMs and signing up to half a dozen services like newsgroup server and directories and search engines and what nots, download software with impossible names like sabnzbd (I'm waiting up for somebody to scream how nobody uses sabnzbd anymore, it's been replaced by jidwiaj and iqerqip, which are super easy, and that just proves my po…

Whoa; lots of great responses :)

I've read all the comments, and they're helpful, illuminating, insightful, and I've learned a lot (genuinely).

But overall they did not change and rather enforced my perspective:

1. the "Easy, out of the box, set-it-and-forget-it, everybody knows this" method to safely and easily to this seems to still change every 6-12 months, and still doesn't compare to convenience of just pushing a button on Netflix.

2. Paying for VPNs or Seedboxes etc easily equals the cost of a "just works" streaming service, while incurring new and exciting security & privacy threat vectors.

3. Most importantly, they don't take into account on what I will put forward is the actual mainstream public scenario: family that just wants to watch stuff . Between spouse who cannot be bothered with three remotes and two computer keyboards and six devices and 7 steps to watch something they could otherwise just stream on their phone, parent-in-law who wants to watch NBA/NHS/Soccer/Whatever reliably and in real time with no interruptions, kids who want to watch Paw Patrol safely now now now, all of this at the same time and all of them expecting six nines reliability and utter convenience across all their devices all the time always.

I'm off that particular wagon train, and if that makes me less of a computer geek, then so be it :-)

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#820

Post by bogwog »

aerosmile wrote: post #790
bogwog wrote: post #634

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is such a cowardly view. > or are you just shifting the balance of power from US companies to Chinese companies? That's not going to happen. The biggest Chinese companies only exist because of stolen technology. This is a well documented fact. Tencent for example has this business model: 1) Identify trending games from competitors outside of China 2) Clone those games and release them internationally 3) Petition…

> The biggest Chinese companies only exist because of stolen technology. We can debate the origination of their know how just like we can debate the origination of Covid. But at the end of the day what matters are the results, and China demonstrated with Covid how much more successfully they were in execution than we were. That same scenario is being replayed in board rooms across the globe - the Chinese people are h…

> their residents are somehow genetically more superior to other parts of the country

Those are your words, not mine.

I never said that Chinese people can’t innovate. My point was that Chinese companies don’t innovate, and if you wanted to have an adult discussion about it, I would’ve been happy to clarify for you why I believe that.

But I’m not going to entertain a discussion with someone that tries to support their argument by putting words in my mouth and suggesting I’m racist. A discussion with someone like that will go nowhere productive.

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