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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

#162

When Netflix first launched, it was great - they had a massive catalogue of older/pre-existing content, and were making a bunch of their own new, original content that likely wouldn't have been made elsewhere. Their UX was also pretty great - and made finding interesting content easy. They made it dead-easy to sign up, there was no pushy retention teams or hoops to jump through if you wanted to cancel. That's why I p…

I can't imagine anyone at 'Amazon Video' actually uses the service, else they'd realise that the UI is horrific...and whole service is terrible. I only have it as its "free" with my delivery options.

I watch some shows on Amazon Prime Video despite the shitty UI because they are great but it does mean that I do no discovery through the app.

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

#163

When Netflix first launched, it was great - they had a massive catalogue of older/pre-existing content, and were making a bunch of their own new, original content that likely wouldn't have been made elsewhere. Their UX was also pretty great - and made finding interesting content easy. They made it dead-easy to sign up, there was no pushy retention teams or hoops to jump through if you wanted to cancel. That's why I p…

And if they have the content you're looking for today, it'll be gone next week...

I have a decent rip of The Expanse and an amazon prime account!

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

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paying for things you don't have to pay for is a quick way to lose money, no matter how much you make.

But that excuse justifies much more than digital piracy. You don't "have to pay for" a car if you can steal one.

Before this devolves into an argument about piracy, let me begin by saying the reason I pirate is because I feel fine doing so. I don't care about any arguments for why others might think I shouldn't. I'm simply not bothered by it.

Back to discussion, I agree that saving money could apply to almost anything. However my first point is that, in my opinion, there's a material difference between digital piracy and stealing a car. If I possess a car, nobody else can own it. However with digital media, I'm making a copy of something that has zero impact on anybody else's ability to own their own copy of that data. The only thing that's lost is my physical storage space that could've stored something else, but that's my call to make.

A second point is that I mainly pirate things I wouldn't have bought otherwise. I still watch movies in theaters because I can't pirate a theater experience (AMC A-list is great if you enjoy watching in the theaters IMO), I still buy modern games because I'm extremely cautious when it comes to running executables.

A third point is that ethically, I consider supporting a mega-corporation like Amazon worse than committing piracy. Mega-corporations commit much more morally heinous actions, and at an enormously greater scale, than an average pirate would ever commit. In my opinion, the moral sin is not that pirates commit piracy, it's that mega-corporations have been given almost free rein to shape and exploit our society as they see fit

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

#165
post #96

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 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" I used to almost never rewatch movies, but I have kept track of what my favorite movies were, and when I've made friends with someone who was interested in seeing some of the movies that I liked then I'd find myself rewatchi…

I just watched Margin Call for probably the 5th or 6th time over the weekend. I love the movie, it's not particularly great in an objective sense, but Zach Quinto and Simon Baker in particular do great jobs in their roles. And some of the scenes are fantastic even in isolation.[0]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Elyfo1DIlzs (6m 23s)

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

#166

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?…

While I appreciate the concern, I've got a fair bit of free time, and to be clear I'm not actually worried about the financial cost. I'm living well within my means. Tomorrow I'm going to build a chicken coop. The setup I've got doesn't require very much active maintenance, aside from yelling at my father to tag things better. I'm sure I could just go to sketchy pirate streaming sites (putlocker and the like) if I wa…

> Tomorrow I'm going to build a chicken coop. The setup I've got doesn't require very much active maintenance, aside from yelling at my father to tag things better.

Think you might have to feed the chickens along side your tagging scheme.

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

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many countries outside of the US don't have unlimited[0] bandwidth ISPs. So downloading again and again is not feasible everywhere. 0. US ISPs are capped but in the TB range so most people never reach the cap.

Citation for [0]? I've even read the fine print for my current ISP here in the US. Unless you mean cap as in it's not possible to download more than that per month because your download speed is too low.

[deleted]

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

#168
A subreddit for you: /r/DataHoarder - "It's A Digital Disease!"

https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/

You can reduce electricity use if you can keep your content stored in a powered-off state and run a low-power device for your pirating; when needed, boot up your server to watch things or to transfer out your new downloads.

Finally, you might like the software I created to browse your collection: Video Hub App

https://videohubapp.com/ & https://github.com/whyboris/Video-Hub-App (MIT open source)

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

#169

What you’re describing is data hoarding. I pirate a ton too, but you know what I do with a movie or TV show after I’ve watched it? I delete it. Poof, gone. But it’s still in the most important dataset I have. My memory. To help with the metadata of my own memory, I write down a list of the films I’ve seen. I only keep the movies I really love and want to rewatch (Robocop). That TV show I just finished that was great…

The data is currency though, in the pirate economy.

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

#170

I haven't paid for 90-95% of the content I consumed in the past 12 years. I've never spent a cent on it.(and I used to spend many hours watching new movies/shows every single day+Music+AAA games) Maybe try not hoarding all the half-decent movies on earth in 4K bluray version? at this point you have more data than a small piracy site...

Do you ever feel guilty that if everyone did what you did none of the content would exist? That you are stealing from all the hard working artists and tradespeople that made the content you love?

If I lift food out of the bin at a michelin star restaurant am I stealing from all the hard working chefs and waiters that made the food? nope.

If every one I know joined me in eating from the bin would the michelin star restaurant go out of business? nope.

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