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Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

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Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#91

Post by bryans »

As a 5TB MP3 hoarder myself (along with ~50GB/day of movie/TV pirating), I was curious as to how much content 30TB actually is, so I checked the average file size for my last 300 downloads of mostly 1080p shows and 2160p movies. They averaged 3GB, so that's roughly 10,000 pieces of long form video. Presuming an average bitrate of 14Mbps, 30TB is ~4,760 hours.

The average adult watches 3 hours per day. Given the OP's hobby-level interest in collecting the content, we can probably double that to 6 hours per day, which makes for 2.5 years worth of content.

Even though I'm squarely in the 6+ hour category, there are maybe 100 or so favorite movies that I've watched more than once, and once per year I'll re-watch a TV series (this year's revisit was Halt And Catch Fire). But even adding all of that together, we're talking about maybe 500 unique videos over ~20 years.

I can't wrap my head around needing to store 10,000 videos forever for the tiny chance that you might want to watch one that isn't still available through Usenet, private trackers or reasonable paid means.

Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#92

Post by zagrebian »

trh0awayman wrote: post #88

At least where I live in Europe, it's almost impossible to not pirate. The government has strict controls on media and so it's impossible to even get access to most movies. Netflix, Amazon Prime and other streaming sites have been completely neutered. HBO Go, Criterion, etc. are completely inaccessible. In the US, it's a different story. Everything outside of Karagarga is available to be streamed, or at least purchas…

I watched a lot of X-files on German free TV in the ’90s, and I only found out later that it was edited to remove the most graphic scenes. Imagine paying for streaming and not even getting the full content.

Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#93

Post by rr808 »

strken wrote: post #63
hotpotamus wrote: post #25

Welcome to Hacker News where everyone makes $500k/year and nobody pays for content. Or at least it feels that way sometimes. I don't make that much money but I also don't pay for content.

Nobody lets me pay for content. They're all tying themselves in contractual knots trying to find the most lucrative deal, and meanwhile it's impossible to just buy a movie or a TV show without shipping a physical disc. I go to e.g. the South Park website, and I'm greeted by an error message saying they're "working hard to resolve [their] pre-existing contractual obligations," which is the same message they've shown f…

Is it really so hard to watch something else?

Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#94

Post by fxtentacle »

I agree on the issues. There's no legal way to watch TV shows without granting blanket internet access to apps where everyone knows that they shit on your privacy, spy on you, and sell the data to multiple advertisement networks.

The only way how I can keep my TV offline and put content on a USB stick is by breaking the DRM. It's literally necessary for privacy-preserving content consumption.

Plus the market has really weird incentives. I have disposable income and I'm happy to pay for ad-free content. And precisely because of that, they try extra hard to shove ads into my face.

Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#95

Post by bombcar »

Sakos wrote: post #80
bombcar wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I usually get the DVDs in that case, if possible. Some of the newest content isn’t available on DVD but most of the older stuff is.

If you're buying secondhand DVD's, and I don't see how you aren't because who's still producing DVD's (or even, who's producing Blurays for older content), then you're on the same level as people who pirate from the eyes of publishers and media conglomerates. You might feel better about yourself, but it's a quirk of history that they haven't been able to make secondhand sales illegal.

You'd be surprised, lots of content is still available as new on places like Amazon, especially if you broaden to outside the US.

Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#96

Post by brk »

I'm guessing you may be a bit older than the average demographic here, from a time when owning movies was expensive and thus the content was implied as being very exclusive and valuable. In others, I have seen this lead to the digital hoarding tendencies, wanting to keep all that content on hand.

Though I am from the same era, I don't generally find many movies or TV series that I really want to watch more than once. I have no desire to keep a large library of movies, they have almost zero value after the first watch (music is an entirely different thing though).

As others have pointed out, your costs are more due to the long term retention of the content, not the initial acquisition.

Personally, I prefer the path of least resistance, but the content has to be of decent quality and value. Thus, I am not interested in 5+ ~20/mo subscriptions to get access to the maybe 10 things I watch per month.

Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#97

Post by lostmsu »

cmeacham98 wrote: post #74
lostmsu wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a very pessimistic estimate for idling PC-based storage box. The story looks faked all over the place. 30 TB? I have as much, and the storage price was maybe $600 last year.

The rest of the computer costs money too. They maybe overpaid a bit, but it's not totally unreasonable.

If one want cost savings, why do they need a separate computer? And if the need is somehow there, you could always buy a used one.

Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#98

Post by trompetenaccoun »

ntauthority wrote: post #20
BatteryMountain wrote: post #9

Piracy and data-hoarding are two different hobbies. One cost next to nothing, the cost of the other one you are quite familiar with.. Jokes aside, would you consider deleting your entire collection and then also cancel subscriptions and possibly give away or sell any tech equipment you do not use for work? And then find something else to do with the newly-freed time? Can you do it for 6 or 12 months? If not, why not?…

Piracy and such hoarding are inextricably intertwined. If you want a particularly uncommon variant of some pirate content (like an obscure movie in any quality, or a somewhat popular movie in original BD format), you better grab it when it's available, as further down the line getting the exact same such content may be more and more difficult. Streaming services have a similar issue (re-encoding, bad rereleases due t…

That's the same for non-pirates in this rent economy where you don't own the things you buy anymore. And anyone I know who's seriously into movies, meaning they watch stuff far beyond the Follywood mainstream, is part of some online club/"pirate group" if you want to call them that, because there isn't another way to get a lot of the rare stuff. Even though someone may legally hold the rights, but they simply don't make it available to the public.

Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#100

Post by hotpotamus »

strken wrote: post #63
hotpotamus wrote: post #25

Welcome to Hacker News where everyone makes $500k/year and nobody pays for content. Or at least it feels that way sometimes. I don't make that much money but I also don't pay for content.

Nobody lets me pay for content. They're all tying themselves in contractual knots trying to find the most lucrative deal, and meanwhile it's impossible to just buy a movie or a TV show without shipping a physical disc. I go to e.g. the South Park website, and I'm greeted by an error message saying they're "working hard to resolve [their] pre-existing contractual obligations," which is the same message they've shown f…

When I see all the justifications I wonder who are they for? If you feel the need to justify it to semi-anonymous people on the internet, then you're probably trying to justify it to yourself which means you think what you're doing is wrong.
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