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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

#261

Post by judge2020 »

moffkalast wrote: post #245
anon9191 wrote: post #152

Reasons (TV/Movie) piracy is better than any paid service: * All in one place/App/UI. Be it Plex/Jellyfin/Emby/Kodi/etc, you only have 1 app UI/UX to deal with. No more wondering "What network was that on?", "Wait, it's on 2 services but which one has my watched status?", "What does clicking forward/back do in this App?", "How do I turn on subtitles?", etc * Local playback. You never have to wait on your internet or…

The interesting thing is that for gaming Gabe Newell has figured this out decades ago i.e. "piracy is an issue of service, not price" and today Steam fulfils practically all of those reasons you listed. All games in one store, offline play, hosting mods and support forums, cross-machine save sync, access even if the game gets removed from the store entirely later on, etc. GoG for example goes a step further with the…

> I wonder if streaming networks would have more success with a similar pay-to-own approach.

https://moviesanywhere.com

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

#262

Post by eternityforest »

philistine wrote: post #103

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…

This is one of the very first tines I have seen data hoarding described as a problem rather than just a hobby.

It does seem to have aspects that are a bit more troublesome than people talk about. Reddit seems very pro hoarding, this thread seems to see it like physical hoarding.

It doesn't seem to be as much of a problem as this thread would make you think though.

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

#263

Post by pmoriarty »

paranoidrobot wrote: post #14

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…

"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."

The movie selection on NetFlix's DVD service[1] is still fantastic.

The movie selection on their streaming service[2] is absolutely atrocious.

Not sure what accounts for the discrepancy.

[1] - https://dvd.netflix.com/

[2] - https://www.netflix.com/

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

#264

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

captainmuon wrote: post #114

Here in Germany, it is almost impossible to pirate for free . If you download shows via BitTorrent you almost immediately get a fine ("Abmahnung"). There are some illegal streaming sites, but quality and reliability is poor in my experience. But you can get a subscription to a VPN for about the same price as a Netflix subscription (~10€/month), that will allow you to torrent without worring about getting caught. Stra…

> If you download shows via BitTorrent you almost immediately get a fine ("Abmahnung").

How do they detect this?

If you're using a public tracker like The Pirate Bay, I can understand. But what if you're using a private tracker?

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

#265

Post by badRNG »

eternityforest wrote: post #262
philistine wrote: post #103

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…

This is one of the very first tines I have seen data hoarding described as a problem rather than just a hobby. It does seem to have aspects that are a bit more troublesome than people talk about. Reddit seems very pro hoarding, this thread seems to see it like physical hoarding. It doesn't seem to be as much of a problem as this thread would make you think though.

Eh, sending $1200 on a hobby doesn't seem all that problematic to me, especially if one is getting additional utility from it. It's not like the cat is going to go missing behind a pile of hard drives any time soon.

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

#266

Post by lostmsu »

pirate-Loo6uoDu wrote: post #104
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.

Hard drive prices fluctuate a lot. I put this together in early 2018. In early 2018 an 8TB seagate drive cost ~$200 according to https://jcmit.net/diskprice.htm . I'm also counting usable storage, not snapraid or anything like that. The reality is it's 39.12 TiB not counting SSD cache. > The story looks faked all over the place. I also bought a pretty nice case that can store 10+ hard drives, and a PCIe sata adapter.…

Don't take it personally. I am just being skeptical because you created a new account. Does the country where you are actively prosecute piracy, or are you a public person, who does not want their relationship with copyright disclosed for the sake of keeping public image?

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

#267

Post by bityard »

300bps wrote: post #132
philistine wrote: post #103

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…

I rewatch things all the time. If I’m doing side work at night and just want something on the background I’ll put on a movie or show that I’ve seen before. Beyond that, hard drives are cheap! I have a single 18 TB disk in my main computer that runs Plex. It lets me and my kids watch content from anywhere with an Internet connection. 18 TB hard drives are about $300.

> Beyond that, hard drives are cheap! I have a single 18 TB disk

Fair warning: It is very dangerous to make statements like this in a public forum like this.

You run the risk of someone spotting it and making a seemingly-innocent reply along the lines of, "Oh, you should at LEAST have TWO disks set up as a mirror so you don't lose all your movies when (not if, but when) the disk dies." And then someone else will say, "LOL u noob, RAID not a backup!" Another participant will assure you that no data is safe unless it's stored at on at least a 5-disk ZFS array. And then someone else will jump in to point out that even ZFS is not safe if you're not running ECC memory. And course you can't just have ONE of these ECC-enabled 5-disk ZFS-breathing monsters, because every component ASIDE from the disks is a single point of failure, so you'd better have TWO just to be safe. Which means you'll need a UPS because sudden power loses are _awesome_ if you like having your platters scribbled all over by a browned-out disk controller. And what exactly is your disaster recovery plan in the event of a fire or flood, gotta have some infra running in good health off-site in case something like that happens. And so on.

Of course if you dig far enough into these admonitions and suggestions, the good news is that you won't have the time to watch any of those movies.

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

#268

Post by pjmlp »

georgeecollins wrote: post #227
philistine wrote: post #103

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…

I don't pirate, I pay for content, but I like to own a digital copy of music content. So I buy MP3s rather than subscribe to a service. It's probably strange-- and maybe dumb-- but I feel like in the long run I never know what will happen to a service in terms of how it may change in price or quality. If I own a CD or an MP3, I know I have what I want. It may not be rational. I know some people think I am crazy.

You're fine, I do the same.

Either that or we're on the same hallway. :)

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

#269

Post by joshgachnang »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #248
philistine wrote: post #103

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…

After all, if you want to watch it again -- you can always pirate it again! (The one complication is that I pirate using private BitTorrent tracker sites where I need to do some amount of seeding to stay on good terms, under conditions that vary from site to site, and can be hard to keep track of as I try to recover storage space). But yeah, I'd say the cost of OP is not in the pirating, it's in the hoarding.

You say that, but a lot of older shows become increasingly hard to get copies of the longer from the air date you get (legally or pirated)
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